Denmark was in the sights of the Australian financial giant Macquarie when Europe was cheated by dividend fraudsters.
According to a leading tax expert, the major shareholder in Danish TDC – the Australian investment bank Macquarie – tried to defraud with a refund of Danish dividend tax.
Internal documents, which Børsen and DR have come into possession of, show that the Danish treasury was in the sights of the Australian financial giant in the spring of 2011.
The bank’s department for “Tax Operations” (Tax Operations, ed.) Worked for several years purposefully to design a model that would make it possible to have the same dividend tax from Danish shares paid out several times.
One can conclude from the documents that there has been an attempt to make cum-ex trades, similar to those seen in Germany, says Christoph Spengel, professor of international tax law at the Universität Mannheim about the new documents , to the Stock Exchange.
The revelation comes as, around 100 current and former employees of Macquarie are being investigated by German police for having participated in the looting of the country through unjustified refund of dividend tax.
Dividend tax fraud
In Denmark, according to the authorities , fraud with dividend tax has meant that Tax has wrongfully paid out DKK 12.7 billion to companies or persons residing abroad.
Through a loophole in Skat’s control, they have applied for a refund of dividend tax on the basis of fictitious shareholdings and falsified documentation from foreign companies.
Certain foreign companies do not have to – like Danish companies – pay 27 percent in tax on share dividends.
The fraud has taken place by the companies and individuals filling in forms for a refund of dividend tax without having shares in Danish companies.
