Berlin 12 August : German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has denied having influence on a bank’s political status, in a probe concerning the biggest tax scandal in the history of the country. The government is believed to have lost around 30 billion euros ($31 billion) in the so-called cum-ex scandal that involved the shifting of shares back and forth to refunds that weren’t always due, according to the news agency dpa.
It was unclear for a long time whether the financial maneuvering was lawful or not, however an array of instances are in the process as tax authorities attempt to recover a portion of the money.
The Hamburg-based Warburg Bank has also come under scrutiny.
A committee in the city’s northern region is looking into whether lawmakers in Hamburg might have had an impact on decisions regarding taxes, at a time that Scholz was Hamburg’s mayor.
Scholz declared that he was convinced that the government did the right thing in tax collection in relation to the cum-ex transactions in where shares with (cum) and without (ex) dividend entitlements were moved between the date of the dividend payment.
In the confusion over who was the owner of the shares at the time dividends were due, the tax offices reimbursed taxes that were actually not paid in any way.
“There is no evidence that suggest there was any political influence” Scholz said in remarks made just a week ahead of when he is scheduled to be questioned about the subject.
“I am confident that this decision is not going to be changed.”
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