Swiss Bank Data Studied by Baden-Wuerttemberg for $1 Billion in Unpaid Tax
German authorities in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg are examining tax information offered by an informant detailing what may be illicit funds stashed in Swiss accounts, though they said they won’t buy stolen data.
Finance Ministry officials in the southwestern region received an offer from an informant who claimed to have information on German companies and business people with 800 million euros ($1 billion) in Swiss accounts, Simon Veser, a ministry spokesman, said by telephone today from the state capital Stuttgart.
He confirmed media reports from yesterday, adding that the allegations from the informant, who cited funds tied to the telecommunications and real-estate industries, haven’t been verified. “The data that arrived are being examined,” he said.
The purchase by German authorities of stolen tax data to uncover alleged tax evasion in Switzerland has been a source of tension between the governments in Berlin and Bern. Switzerland has said it won’t offer legal assistance in such cases.
It’s also sparked a debate in Germany on buying illicit data. After the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia bought a tax CD in February, Baden-Wuerttemberg Prime Minister Stefan Mappus said the state wouldn’t follow suit because such a purchase could pose legal risks. The CD offered to Baden- Wuerttemberg, which contained data on 20,000 accounts, was obtained in June by the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony.
Since the controversy unfolded, thousands of people across Germany have filed voluntary tax declarations on their Swiss bank holdings, fearing they would be caught up in the dragnet. Baden-Wuerttemberg alone has tallied 6,600 self declarations as of Aug. 19, unveiling 1.1 billion euros in assets held in foreign accounts, Veser said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.
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