Syed Rahman of Rahman Ravelli details the bank’s partial settlement of its role in the share trading tax scandal.
Deutsche Bank is paying millions to resolve some of its involvement in the Cum-Ex tax scandal.
The bank has stated in its annual report that it has come to an agreement with the state and other banks regarding tax repayments for some of its Cum-Ex activities.
In a settlement, it has assumed 29 million euros of the tax debt of two funds that it provided services and financing to, which has now been paid to the German Federal Central Tax Office.
But this payment does not resolve all of Deutsche Bank’s Cum-Ex matters. The bank, which was searched four years ago regarding illegal share transactions, is cooperating with law enforcement authorities regarding other Cum-Ex investigations.
Cum-Ex saw shares traded in a way that disguised the identity of their owner so that more than one party could claim rebates on capital gains tax, even though that tax had only been paid once at most. It is one of the largest tax fraud scandals in European history and is estimated to have cost governments tens of billions of euros.
In Germany, it has been reported that investigators suspect more than 1,700 individuals were involved in Cum-Ex. But it should be remembered that Germany was just one of a number of countries whose treasuries paid out huge amounts in rebates due to Cum-Ex. Those countries are now looking to both regain that money and hold to account those responsible for engineering its removal from state funds.
Cum-Ex was an activity that was only carried out between approximately 2007 and 2011, until the authorities realised what was happening. But it shows no signs of being consigned to history just yet, due largely to the huge fall-out from the effect it had on state finances.
