"Cum-Ex" scandal: The real extent of the fraud is even more dramatic than expected

The damage in the "Cum-Ex" scandal is much worse than expected.

Instead of the originally assumed 55 billion euros, the damage could be considerably higher.

Hamburg - 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 on Thursday.

You would have researched the new amount together with 15 international media.

Originally, around 55 billion euros was assumed.

"Cum-Ex": So much has escaped the German state

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.

Spengel had assumed at least 31.8 billion euros in previous calculations from 2018.

A particular problem is that every European country follows its own rules when pursuing tax tricks.

No European country is ready to take the lead and coordinate efforts, is the assessment of the research.

The authorities pointed to a lack of effective tools to combat tax evasion.

This is how “cum-ex” deals work

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 should be assessed as tax evasion by the German tax authorities and therefore punishable by law.

According to research, the Cologne public prosecutor's office determined a total of more than 1,000 suspects.