“Oh, good heavens! Who ever heard of such an idea?”
“A little too self-evident.”
“Ha! ha! ha!—ha! ha! ha!—ho! ho! ho!”--Edgar Allan Poe, The Purloined Letter Swiss Spy Suspected of Monitoring German Tax Investigators
Deutsche Bank And Trump's Alleged Russian Loans -
It only costs the IRS 1 or 2% of the sum raised to gain tax revenue and ... In a letter to five House Democrats, Germany's largest bank said it was ...
Here's our long weekend summary of the key events that affect World Down Under, with news of a huge tax swindle in Germany.
But first in the US, Congress is being asked to increase their debt ceiling, and it is unsure they will do it. The limit stands at just under US$20 tln, a bit over 100% of US GDP. It actually reached the self-imposed limit in March, but creative accounting will keep the Federal government functioning until mid August sometime. But analysts are increasing uncertain the limit will actually be raised and that will creature either a spending crunch or a reputation hit on US Treasuries.
In Europe, international payment platform SWIFT reported a sharp drop in profit as a direct result of the large cyber crime event that resulted in fraud and losses that victimised the Bangladeshi central bank last year, probably by North Korea. Despite this, traffic increased on the network last year, hitting an all time monthly peak of over 30 million messages.
In Germany, a low ranking official in their tax office has stumbled on a huge tax swindle - may be as much as €32 bln in taxes have been avoided by a group of bankers, lawyers and stockbrokers who have used the City of London as a tax haven to sanitise transactions to eliminate taxes payable on a huge number of transactions. It could be Germany's largest tax fraud ever. Germany lost €32 billion to bankers in 'biggest ever tax scandal': report
The Great Tax Robbery
The Bundestag (Germany's lower house of parliament) has set up a ... “It's the greatest tax scandal in the history of the Federal Republic
Whistleblower
This investigation is based on whistleblower data. A group of journalists have collaborated with the University of Mannheim to piece this story together.
Rather than being spotted by German authorities, this scandal has been exposed by an administrative assistant in Germany's revenue office who noticed one US pension fund getting unusually large rebates. With a little digging, she started to uncover more cases.
According to the BBC, "40 German banks and scores of other financial institutions around the world" are involved in the tax probe.
There are now 30 German officials tracing these transactions and building legal cases.
€32bn tax scandal rocks Germany
[Germany fears huge losses in massive tax scandal
It is reckoned to be the biggest tax scandal in German post-war history. ... And gradually it is emerging that large-scale tax avoidance was ...] According to the report, banks and stockbrokers would buy and sell shares for foreign investors in a way which allowed them to claim tax refunds they were not entitled to, calling into question the legality of the practice.
We have been reporting on the grip China tries to exert on its expats, including those in this part of the world. They are using money to exert influence on political parties as well. Now, they are extending that influence with lucrative 'news' deals, with the likes of Sky News, Fairfax and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. By paying-to-play, the Chinese goal is to ensure that the Australian and Chinese media should adhere to principles of "mutual respect" and "win-win cooperation". It is the same strategy Moscow uses to get its RT channel on subscriber news platforms. But the Chinese are far more along with their strategy here.
And it never pays to be a whistleblower in China. The State will come after you with both barrels. Especially if you challenge those at the top of their power structure, and especially if you were one of them. In this case, the accusations have been leveled at HNA Group and the way they wield influence (and corruption) in Beijing. Of course, HNA denies any wrongdoing.
In Australia, it is a public holiday today, and that will accentuate the usual thin markets we often see on Mondays.
And the Aussie tax authorities are now saying their recent CGT changes targeted at foreigners will also catch Aussie expats. “In some cases an Australian citizen who lives outside Australia may not be a resident for Australian tax purposes, particularly if they have been living outside Australia for an extended period,” a spokesperson said. “In these cases, the Australian citizen may be a foreign investor for the purposes of these provisions and will not be granted a clearance certificate from the ATO if they apply. They will then have tax withheld on the sale of their property.” (This item has been added to the originally published story.)
Swiss spy arrested in Germany 'watched tax investigators': report
Swiss spy arrested in Germany 'watched tax investigators': report ... saying that "if the story turns out to be true, it would be a sizablescandal.