British American Tobacco (BAT), which belongs to the cigarette company Lucky Strike, confirmed it benefited from a Belgian tax ruling between 2007 and 2011 in Le Soir on Wednesday. It hasn’t said if this ruling still applies. The cigarette company is among the companies mentioned in the LuxLeaks case. A Luxemburg ruling in November 2009 allowed the grand-ducal brand of BAT to reduce its taxable revenue by 92%.
On the 3rd of February, the European Commission opened an inquest into around 60 particularly aggressive Belgian tax rulings.
BAT has two branches in Belgium. One of them saved 1 million euros from 2007 to 2011 thanks to an “excess profit ruling”. The cigarette company says it has not been contacted by the European Commission at this stage in the investigation.
(Source: Belga)
