In the tax scandal of so-called Cum-Ex transactions are in the last week for the second Time, the large law firm Freshfields in Frankfurt am Main rooms have been searched. The firm has confirmed a report of the Handelsblatt, which had reported first. The action had already on 14. November taken place. As in the first search in October 2017, it went to the consulting services of attorneys in connection with Cum-Ex-transactions.

In the case of these equity deals, investors took advantage of a loophole in the law, to Bouncing around the state over the years to the billions in taxes Around the dividend record date, shares (cum) and without (ex) the dividend claim between several Parties, and shuffled. In the end, it was not the authorities, to whom the papers belonged. The result is that financial institutions reimbursed to capital income taxes had not been paid. Europe is to far amount of damage on more than 55 billion euros. In Germany, the government closed the Tax loophole in 2012.

“Our advice was not always applicable to the legal situation,” said a Freshfields spokesman. “We continue to be confident that our advice was not legally objectionable.” The General Prosecutor’s office, confirmed the searches in connection with their extensive Cum-Ex-investigations, but does not mention the name of the firm.

Cum-Ex Dimension

the creation of a Total of the German government with a loss of at least 31.8 billion euros. The calculations of the financial scientist, Christoph Spengel, University of Mannheim.