An investigation published by Mediapart and the European Investigative Collaborations network alleged that Yves Saint Laurent benefited from a broader Kering tax-optimization structure between 2009 and 2017. According to the investigation, approximately €550 million in profits were transferred to Luxury Goods International, a Kering subsidiary based in Switzerland's canton of Ticino, where the profits were reportedly taxed at roughly 8 percent under a local tax agreement rather than at France's substantially higher corporate rate, then approximately 33 percent. The journalists calculated that the arrangement may have deprived France of about €180 million in taxes. The contrast was stark: Saint Laurent's French company reportedly declared only around €7 million in cumulative profits between 2009 and 2016 and paid approximately €430,000 in tax during that period, despite the global strength of the luxury label. The allegations placed one of fashion's most prestigious houses inside the long-running European controversy over multinational luxury groups shifting taxable profits across borders. The report described an alleged corporate structure rather than a criminal conviction, making the episode a major investigative scandal but not proof of individual wrongdoing.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
The €180 Million Swiss Tax-Shift Allegedly Used to Shrink Saint Laurent's French Bill
Yves Saint Laurent and Kering / 2010s
An investigation published by Mediapart and the European Investigative Collaborations network alleged that Yves Saint Laurent benefited from a broader Kering tax-optimization structure between 2009 and 2017. According to the investigation, approximately €550 million in profits were transferred to Luxury Goods International, a Kering subsidiary based in Switzerland's canton of Ticino, where the profits were reportedly taxed at roughly 8 percent under a local tax agreement rather than at France's substantially higher corporate rate, then approximately 33 percent. The journalists calculated that the arrangement may have deprived France of about €180 million in taxes. The contrast was stark: Saint Laurent's French company reportedly declared only around €7 million in cumulative profits between 2009 and 2016 and paid approximately €430,000 in tax during that period, despite the global strength of the luxury label. The allegations placed one of fashion's most prestigious houses inside the long-running European controversy over multinational luxury groups shifting taxable profits across borders. The report described an alleged corporate structure rather than a criminal conviction, making the episode a major investigative scandal but not proof of individual wrongdoing.
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