France’s crackdown on tax evasion yielded €12.2 billion in 2015, up almost a fifth from the previous year, Finance Minister Michel Sapin said yesterday.

Looking to shore up fragile state accounts, France has launched a campaign to encourage taxpayers to come clean on previously undeclared assets held abroad, and clamped down on aggressive tax optimisation techniques by multinational companies.

“It’s no longer correct to say that big digital multinationals can evade taxes,” Sapin told reporters.

“In France, we don’t do arrangements. We follow the law, and only the law,” he said. In 2014, France had raked in €10.4 billion.

It’s no longer correct to say that big digital multinationals can evade taxes

The comment appeared to refer to US internet giant Google, from which the French taxman is seeking €1.6 billion in back taxes, a source at the ministry said last week.

Last month, Sapin ruled out striking a deal with the US search engine company as the British government recently did, saying the sums at stake in France were “far greater” than those in Britain.

Google reached a £130 million settlement with British tax authorities for the period since 2005, which British lawmakers criticised as “disproportionately small”.

France has also cracked down on individuals who hold undeclared foreign bank accounts, mainly in neighbouring Switzerland where bank secrecy rules are unravelling.

Sapin said that campaign had yielded €2.6 billion in 2015, up €700 million from a year ago, and higher than the €2 billion Sapin had hoped for last year.