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Main entrance of the bank in Hamburg: Warburg doubts the legality of the notices and lodged an objection
Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa
In the cum-ex scandal, Hamburg’s Warburg Bank is initially allowed to withhold a tax liability in the three-digit million range.
In April, the tax office reclaimed more than 160 million euros in capital gains tax for the three years 2007 to 2009.
The tax office said at the time that the amount was wrongly reimbursed to the bank.
However, Warburg doubts the legality of the notices and appealed.
Upon request, the tax office suspended the execution, as it is called in technical language.
A spokesman for the tax authorities announced that one could not comment on the case because of tax secrecy.
In principle, legal doubts are to be regarded as well-founded if there is no "established case law" in the issue.
The case should concern the tax courts.
Should the bank fail, it would have to pay six percent interest per year in addition to the tax liability.
In cum-ex transactions, banks traded shares before (cum) and after (ex) payment of the dividend.
In doing so, they had taxes reimbursed multiple times that had only been paid once.
The tax authorities suffered billions in damage.
Warburg Bank denies having acted illegally.
The case is politically explosive.
In Hamburg's citizenship, an investigative committee is to clarify whether the SPD candidate for chancellor and former mayor Olaf Scholz campaigned for the city to waive a multi-million dollar tax claim against Warburg.
Scholz denies that.
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