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Tax dodger scandal could mean €400 million for treasury

Published: 4 Feb 10 10:02 CET
Updated: 4 Feb 10 15:00 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100204-25029.html

The scope of a newly uncovered tax evasion scandal reached a new dimension on Thursday, as German officials said far more money was likely squirreled away in Swiss accounts than previously thought.

This week Berlin said it would pay for data on some 1,500 suspected tax dodgers with funds stashed in Swiss accounts, dismissing criticism aside that the allegedly stolen material would not stand up in court.

Initially experts said the informant’s information would lead to some €100 million in recovered tax money for the country, but daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the actual sums could reach upwards of €400 million and are located mainly at the Credit Suisse bank.

Government sources told the paper that the situation was the largest tax evasion discovery in German history.

Internal Credit Suisse documents in the paper's possession reportedly said that the bank has “historically” dealt with German customers who have not taxed all or some of their savings. These customers want bank contact “only seldomly” due to “danger of discovery” and value “discretion and bank secrecy” above all, the documents said.

A Credit Suisse spokesperson told the paper that the bank could not comment on the origin of these documents, but said that the bank did not build its business model based on tax rules.

“If new or current customers tell a banker they have untaxed money, then the banker recommends that the customer consult with an independent tax advisor,” the spokesperson told the paper. “As a bank we have neither the possibility nor the duty to know the tax situation of our customers.”

The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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#1
10:43 February 4, 2010 by michael4096
reminds me of an little advertised episode on the dutch / belgian border a number of years ago, before they agreed to tax information sharing. A dutch bank (slavenburgs, I think) had a major scandal and the top guys were arrested - deliberately, the arrest was arranged for a late friday afternoon to let panic cool, but a monday morning run on the bank was inevitable

over the weekend, the belgian national bank sent a fleet of security vans with enough belgian franks to do the economy some serious harm, together with an army escort, over the border to the small towns on the Dutch side ready for monday morning. Sure enough, come monday, a flood of belgians crossed over to empty their franc-denominated savings accounts in slavenburgs, in cash; they then walked across the road and opened new accounts in one of the other banks that were spread all over that area. The security vans just loaded up all their belgian

cash from the other banks and took it back to belgium

apparenty, it was the only time that belgian military had 'invaded' holland, with or without consent
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#2
16:54 February 4, 2010 by freechoice
Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's
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#3
18:53 February 4, 2010 by Bushdiver
I think the guy selling the info would make more contacting the people that are on his list than he'll get from the government. All they'll do is waste the money anyway. What was this guy asking for? 2.5 million Euros. I wonder if it's tax free.
Report abuse »
#4
20:13 February 4, 2010 by auniquecorn
I think he has an accout at Credit Suisse also, but forgot to put his name on the list.
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