French court adviser favours Orange in $2.2 billion tax dispute
By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS (Reuters) – An adviser to France’s excessive administrative court favoured telecoms company Orange <ORAN.PA> on Monday in a long-lasting $2.2 billion tax dispute over writedowns it booked after shopping for a company in the mid-2000s.
A useful ruling for Orange would compel France’s tax administration to pay the company not lower than 1.9 billion euros ($2.24 billion) in once more taxes it had perceived in 2013.
The litigation stems from the mixture in 2005 of Orange’s subsidiary Cogecom.
This integration led the state-controlled telecoms group to e-book heavy losses which it offset in direction of revenue, thus decreasing the concept on which taxes have been calculated.
The Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, is due to put an end to …