Kering, Owner of Gucci and Saint Laurent, Faces Swiss Tax Inquiry<br />France’s Mediapart and Germany’s Der Spiegel published reports recently saying<br />that Gucci had evaded taxes that it should have paid in other countries by using its Swiss logistics center, where all of its products pass through, to bill for business actually carried out elsewhere.<br />By ELIZABETH PATONMARCH 21, 2018<br />LONDON — Swiss prosecutors said on Wednesday they had opened a criminal investigation into a tax case<br />involving the French luxury group Kering, widening the legal scrutiny of its tax practices in Europe.<br />The reports said that Kering had reached an agreement with officials in the southern region of Ticino, where the logistics center is,<br />that allowed it to pay a corporate tax rate of 8 percent, compared with 31 percent if it had to pay in Italy.<br />The Swiss investigation comes less than a week after Kering, which also owns luxury brands such as Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Saint Laurent, had been forced to deny fresh accusations<br />that it had more broadly failed to comply with tax laws.<br />The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported last year<br />that the authorities were looking into whether Gucci should have paid as much as 1.3 billion euros, or $1.54 billion, in past domestic taxes.
