Clearly, the Carlos Ghosn affair is far from over. The former boss of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, arrested in 2018 in Japan following accusations of tax fraud and since exiled in his residence in Lebanon is still at the heart of this scandal, in which he is suspected of failing to declare several million euros in salaries, but also embezzling funds belonging to Nissan for his personal expenses. In total, more than 30 million euros of income received between 2010 and 2015 would not have been declared, as well as 25 million additional euros. In addition, the former businessman is also suspected of having signed a pension agreement amounting to 70 million euros, not declared to the tax authorities and exceeding the authorized limit. So many accusations that led the ex-car magnate behind bars for several months in a detention center in Tokyo.
But if Carlos Ghosn hadn’t really been talked about for a while, now the fallen businessman is making the headlines again. And for good reason, the French tax authorities is now on his heels, and would be preparing a “mega-tax recovery”, as well as his wife Carole Ghosn. In any case, this is what our colleagues from Release, which underlines that the national direction of the verifications of fiscal situations (DNVSF), in charge of the delicate tax controls would have asked “ that different measures be imposed on the couple “. Requests quickly implemented, since it is therefore the equivalent of 13 million euros assets that have already been seized by the financial authority. The daily mentions in particular “the temporary mortgage of the sumptuous Parisian apartment of seven rooms held on avenue Georges-Mandel by Carole Ghosn, bought 5.9 million euros in 2019”, as well as that of half of a villa in the Yvelines . Finally, the DNVSF also froze 538,000 Renault shares and other debt securities, for an amount of € 500,000.
A history of residence
But what led the tax authorities to implement such a sanction, for the time being on a precautionary basis pending negotiations between Carlos Ghosn and Bercy? To do this, we have to go back to 2012, the year in which the former boss decided to establish his residence in the Netherlands, known to be a tax haven. After all, that was not a problem, as the manager then had to ” pay his taxes in the Netherlands for all his remuneration, after deduction of the sums paid to the French tax authorities for his Renault salary and to the Japanese tax authorities for his Nissan salary », As Liberation explains. This would then have allowed him to enjoy certain advantages, of course, but in a legal way because he actually lived there. Except that here, the tax authorities suspect Carlos Ghosn of never having lived in the Netherlands and of having kept his main residence in France, namely in a duplex bought by a Nissan subsidiary. Suffice to say that this obviously made the financial authority see red, which therefore set up this “mega-tax adjustment”, in order to sanction the leader accused of financial embezzlement.
Find out all about the Carlos Ghosn case:
Carlos Ghosn case: the former boss is preparing a book
Carlos Ghosn: he claims 250,000 euros from Renault at the industrial tribunal
Carlos Ghosn: statements from the former Renault boss
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