Financial fraud
Media: Damage in the “Cum-Ex” scandal is much higher than expected
In the Cum-Ex scandal, investors managed to confuse tax authorities into reimbursing more taxes than they had previously received. Photo: Bodo Marks / dpa
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According to new research, the illegal tax transactions caused damage of 150 billion euros worldwide – three times as much as previously assumed. The German tax authorities are also harder hit.
According to media research, the damage caused by cum-ex tax transactions and similar illegal fraud systems is significantly higher than previously assumed.
The total is around 150 billion euros worldwide, reported the ARD magazine “Panorama” (NDR) and the Correctiv research center. You would have researched the new amount together with 15 international media. Originally, around 55 billion euros was assumed.
In addition to Germany and the USA, at least ten other European countries are affected. According to calculations by tax professor Christoph Spengel from the University of Mannheim, German tax offices alone lost almost 36 billion euros. In previous calculations from 2018, Spengel had assumed at least 31.8 billion euros.
How the scam worked
In the controversial deals, investors quickly pushed shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlements between several participants around the dividend cut-off date. They let the papers circulate among themselves until the tax authorities no longer knew who they belonged to. The tax offices reimbursed more taxes than they had previously collected. In 2012 the tax loophole was closed.
In July of this year, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that the “Cum-Ex” share transactions are to be assessed as tax evasion by the German tax authorities and are therefore punishable by law.