The cum-cum business cost the state billions. North Rhine-Westphalia tightens the course during the processing, elsewhere it still hooks. Experts are now putting pressure.
Almost 30 billion euros are scheduled in the federal budget in 2025 for financing the federal debt. A similar sum – around 28.5 billion euros – was lost to the German state from 2000 to 2020, according to Christoph Spengel, by Cum -Cum share business. Spengel is a professor of business administration at the University of Mannheim, and for years he has been dealing with the topic of the topic.
According to judgments by the Federal Fiscal Court and financial courts on CUM-CUM designs, it would have been possible for the tax authorities to get this money back. To date, however, he has only done this very cautiously.
With Cum-Ex, which according to Spengel's words “little brother” from Cum-Cum, a more precise damage amount can be specified. Here the scientist comes to 7.2 billion euros after the analysis of transaction data. In addition, at Cum-Ex-Aktiendals, the legal processing has progressed significantly further than with Cum-Cum.
“Tax billions Bring back “
A state that Anne Brorhilker from non -profit association “financial transition” in its own words “can” get very upset “, as they are in an interview with the Bavarian radio says: “There is no reason at all that the illegal taxpayers are not brought back. The public is entitled to make the state a bit of an effort to recover tax billions.”
For years, the lawyer has investigated Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum cases at Cologne's leading public prosecutor. Last year, Brorhilker left the authority and now headed the financial crime area at “Financial Wende”. The struggle for tax billions is now one of their focus.
The ex-prosecutor started an online petition last week. She fears that banks and companies could soon destroy documents “that prove their involvement in illegal cum-cum business”. Once these are gone, the “tax billions are irretrievably lost”. The 4th bureaucracy relief law passed by the traffic light coalition last year has exacerbated this problem in her view.
While the parties involved in Cum-Ex-Aktiendals have a capital gains tax due to dividends and only once paid once, the principle of CUM-CUM-very simplified-looks like: securities of foreign shareholders are briefly awarded to business partners in Germany. These can then have the due capital gains tax reimbursed. The actors share the proceeds, the state is empty.
Federal states go different with Reclaims around
Again the BR In some country finance ministries, how much money they got back from the abusive cum-cum designs. Hessen, the state with the nationwide largest banking sector, puts the sum at around one billion euros.
The Ministry emphasizes that the “extensive and complex exams in the other cum-cum-suspicion cases that have so far been identified so far” continued. In total, the Ministry of two billion euros assumes the corresponding stock transactions. The Hessian financial administration ensures that the measures do not have a statute of limitations for tax claims. According to its own statements, the state cooperates closely with the Cologne public prosecutor, which is currently investigating 1,700 accused in Cum-Cum and Cum-Ex cases.
In Bavaria, the authorities have also reclaimed money, the State Office for Taxes calls a sum BR-However, not. Otherwise “conclusions for individual cases could not be excluded”. In July 2024, in a parliamentary request from the Green State Member Tim Pargent, the “potential total tax loss risk” was still estimated by CUM CUM deals with almost 222 million euros. According to the ministry, 34 million euros of it flowed back.
Baden-Württemberg has identified 479 million euros from illegal cum-cum business businesses, which have been largely repaid. They come mainly from deals from 2007 to 2015, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance writes. Further investigations and measures are also underway here.
North Rhine-Westphalia tightened course
The Ministry of Finance in North Rhine -Westphalia is buttoned up – “due to ongoing procedures”. However, the federal state has tightened its course in the matter: an eleven-member Cum-Cum investigation commission is founded, and a separate subject area in the state office to combat financial crime (LBF) with additional staff is currently being set up.
At the end of August 2024, the Münster (OFD) chief finance directorate sent BR-In also an internal note to the responsible tax authorities. The eight-sided paper outlined possible approaches for investigations: Cum-Cum-Cum designs can be tax evasion “if the tax authorities are given incorrect or incomplete information about tax-considerable facts and tax benefits are thus shortened or not justified tax benefits”.
If taxpayers have not disclosed CUM-CUM-CUM transactions in their explanations, the fact that the tax evasion could be in question could be obtained. For this reason, the OFD has imposed a “annihilation lock” for certain “altar”, and the authorities are also supposed to prioritize Cum-Cum cases.
Experts demand major efforts
Despite these positive steps, Christoph Spengel from the University of Mannheim demands “more resources to bring these cases to court”. The expert will explain this today in the legal committee of the NRW state parliament. There is a hearing entitled “More efficient fighting cum-cum business”.
According to Brorhilker, the upcoming federal government should make the topic a top priority and support the federal states with the authorities underlying to it such as the Federal Central Tax Office. After all, it is about billions of billions, and the time run away.
