Netflix's European offices raided as part of tax investigation

While we hunker down and wait out one of the longest days in American politics in at least a couple months, here’s a perhaps nicely distracting reminder that on the other side of the world, things are—almost—business as usual. Well, what’s happening in Netflix’s European offices isn’t exactly your average Tuesday morning, but it sure as hell beats what’s going on here. Why focus on the maps and the return of all those Steve Kornacki thirst tweets when you can read about some good old alleged corporate tax fraud instead?

Everybody say, “Thank you, Netflix!” Per Reuters, the company is providing the distraction we need via a tax fraud laundering probe in their Paris and Amsterdam headquarters this week. Authorities searched both offices in connection with an investigation opened in November 2022, the outlet reports. “Cooperation between the French and Dutch authorities has been underway for many months as part of these proceedings,” a French source said, while both the streamer and the office of the Dutch prosecutor declined to comment. 

The outlet reports that a preliminary investigation of this sort in France does not imply criminal charges and does not necessarily lead to a trial. They also clarify that “the facts which led to the investigation were not immediately clear.” French news outlet La Lettre (via Reuters) reported last year, however, that the streamer’s French subsidiary had become the subject of scrutiny with tax authorities over potential underreported turnover, which appeared to be at odds with the actual number of paying users in the country. According to the French outlet, the company’s local imprint paid less than one million euros in corporate taxes between 2019 and 2020 by involving a separate unit registered in the Netherlands. When they stopped the practice in 2021, the French company’s revenue rose to 1.2 billion euros, up exponentially from 47 million euros the year before. 

Those are all the details we have for now, but if you really want to sink your teeth into this story so you don’t have to watch, uh, other things, Netflix ironically has a pretty good library of shows about large-scale tax fraud you can focus on instead. Docuseries Dirty Money comes to mind, as do Lords Of Scam and The Laundromat.