Germans ready to buy more tax-cheater data
Germany’s government says it will purchase a CD offered to Baden-Württemberg that contains information on presumed tax cheats with assets hidden in Switzerland.
Baden-Württemberg, a German state that borders Switzerland, said over the weekend that it would not buy the CD, going against German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On Wednesday, however, federal authorities stepped in and said they would evaluate the data and make the purchase if it proves to be valid.
The CD could hold data on as many as 1,000 tax cases. Who is selling the information and for how much has not been made public.
In a similar case in another state, North Rhine-Westphalia recently bought a CD with data on alleged tax cheats for €2.5 million (SFr3.66 million), of which the federal government paid half.
With word of the CD’s existence making headlines in Germany, Baden-Württemberg said last week that 1,302 people had reported their undeclared Swiss holdings.
Two years ago Germany bought information on taxpayers who had money hidden in banks located in Liechtenstein.
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