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Given the European dimension of the Cum-Ex scandal linked to highly controversial dividend tax schemes, the Greens call for a common approach beyond Germany's borders. "Because there is no European financial police and governments are not cooperating on fiscal crime, this raid became possible in the first place," said the financial expert of Greens, Gerhard Schick. According to the research of a European-wide media cooperation under the direction of the research center corrective, which also involves ZEIT and ZEIT ONLINE, is about the Cum Ex scandal alongside Germany and Denmark, as well as other European countries. In addition, according to the ex-files, more and more international financial groups mingle with the investigators.
The Federal Ministry of Finance objected to criticism. "In the past, we have informed several states, including at their request, how to deal with ex-ex trade," said a spokesman. The federal government has taken steps in recent years to prevent Cum Ex transactions in Germany. The implementation of a European directive on the automatic exchange of information on certain tax planning models is currently the subject of discussions between the federal government and the states. For cum-ex-trades, investors were paid once
Pay capital gains tax with the help of their bank at least twice.
1.3 billion euros in tax evasion – nothing in Hesse
According to Finance Minister Thomas Schäfer (CDU), the investigation into the Cum-Ex scandal in Hesse and Frankfurt's financial metropolis concerns five groups of investigators with more than 40 employees. Overall, tax evasion by ex-merchants in the state amounts to about 1.3 billion euros, thanks to the capital gains tax, which was wrongly claimed.
The former Minister of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia, Norbert Walter-Borjans (SPD), has asked on Twitter the introduction of corporate criminal law in Germany, "especially for banks". In addition, existing instruments should be rigorously applied. So the green expert Schick criticized the fact that in Germany, the scandal had not yet resulted in the appropriate consequences. He advocated the introduction of a mandatory legal registry of lobbyists and a "legislative footprint" to reveal the influence of interest groups on the laws.
The cum-ex-business in Germany really started in 2007, after a change of law left a loophole for foreign investors. At the time of application of the law, the banking badociation and the German bank involved, as revealed a commission of inquiry of the Bundestag 2016. The German bank itself was involved, according to its own data, in Cum ex business.
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, more than five billion euros escaped the German Treasury through cum-ex-transactions before the closure of the legal breach in 2012. In Europe, the damage amounted to more than 55 billion euros, if we add more opaque tax constructions.
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