Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Research on tax evaders
"Panama Papers" bring the state in millions
BKA investigators have been tracking tax evaders from the "Panama Papers" for years. Now they are taking stock for the first time: the German tax authorities can book at least 72 million euros in additional income through research by journalists. There could be even more.
The "Panama Papers" on financial transactions in tax havens that were uncovered five years ago have brought the public sector additional income of around 72 million euros. Hesse's Finance Minister Michael Boddenberg presented this balance sheet. The evaluation, which was taken over by the Hessian tax administration with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), is now successfully concluded. Nationwide, criminal tax proceedings have been initiated in around 155 cases or ongoing proceedings have been supported by new findings.
As a result, the tax authorities achieved additional tax revenues of over 38.4 million euros. In addition, there would be over 19 million euros from criminal proceedings. Together with additional tax income from data sets submitted abroad, the total is around 72 million euros. However, this is only a snapshot, as not all proceedings have yet been completed both in Germany and worldwide. This sum also only includes feedback from the authorities about secured additional income. However, there is no obligation to re-register. According to the state finance ministry, the actual additional income is therefore likely to be significantly higher.
The "Panama Papers" are confidential documents that an international research network distributed in the spring of 2016. It revealed how politicians, sports officials, billionaires, celebrities and criminals around the world used mailbox companies in Panama to evade taxes in their home countries. In the summer of 2017, the Federal Criminal Police Office announced that it was in possession of the documents and was evaluating them. According to the Ministry of Finance, Hesse contributed over 300,000 euros to the purchase of the papers by the BKA.
. (tagsToTranslate) economy (t) Panama Papers (t) tax fraud (t) tax evader (t) tax havens (t) BKA