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Frankfurt skyline: far-reaching tax deals
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
The scandal surrounding illegal cum-ex transactions has an expensive aftermath for Frankfurt am Main: The city is preparing to have to pay back banks trade taxes in the hundreds of millions.
It could be a sum of around 200 million to 400 million euros, said the responsible department on Friday when asked.
The "Wirtschaftswoche" had previously reported on it.
City Treasurer Bastian Bergerhoff told the newspaper that Frankfurt had to reimburse the banks for overpaid taxes.
However, the tax authorities have not yet fully calculated the total.
However, Frankfurt is prepared "to be able to reimburse a three-digit million amount within three days at any time".
In cum-ex transactions, banks were reimbursed for taxes they had never paid.
Around the dividend record date, several participants pushed shares with (»cum«) and without (»ex«) dividend rights back and forth.
Investors used a loophole in the law to cheat the Treasury out of taxes for years.
Because banks were illegally making high profits, transactions were reversed.
The profits of the banks decrease retrospectively and with it the basis for the trade tax.
On the other hand, there were also penalties and back taxes paid by the banks.
Cum-Ex is considered the biggest tax scandal in German history.
Many banks are involved in this.
The Treasury suffered an estimated double-digit billion loss because of the business.
In 2012 the loophole was closed.
In the summer of 2021, the Federal Court of Justice determined that transactions are to be classified as tax evasion.
Courts and prosecutors have been working on the affair for years
mic/dpa-AFX