2025 Mar 14, 13:21
General Motors has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, seeking to recover over $100 million. The automaker alleges that its Cruise self-driving car unit was improperly used to calculate its tax bill, resulting in an inflated amount. In the lawsuit, GM is demanding $108 million in back taxes over a period of seven years, along with $13 million in penalties and interest. The automaker argues that Cruise operates separately from GM, generates minimal sales, and should not be used to calculate the company's liabilities in San Francisco
GM claims to have only sold $677,000 worth of goods in the city in 2022. The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco and was reported by Bloomberg earlier this week. Both the San Francisco city attorney's office and GM have yet to respond to requests for comment. While the amount GM is seeking represents a small fraction of its reported sales, the lawsuit comes at a time when San Francisco is facing a significant budget deficit due to the ongoing pandemic recovery. Mayor London Breed has asked city agencies to cut their budgets by 10% to address the shortfall. In its complaint, GM argues that the city's taxes do not fairly reflect the company's actual activity in San Francisco, as required by the California Government Code
The Cruise unit, which is the focus of the lawsuit, has faced challenges recently, including a high-profile accident in October and subsequent safety reviews. As a result, Cruise has temporarily taken its cars off the roads in the US and reduced its workforce by about 25%. Greg Bensinger, reporting from San Francisco, contributed to this article. The editing was done by Matthew Lewis.