The new government of my country of birth Germany has set out with quite a bumpy start. Across the board, there are only two cabinet ministers, who strike me as up to the job. They’re the finance minister and the defence minister. All the other cabinet ministers there project the image of being mediocre or worse. And the finance minister is currently cutting a less than convincing figure.
The finance minister has been offered by someone a CD with details of one thousand to one thousand five hundred Germans concealing a pile of dough in Switzerland. That dodgy character seems to have pinched the CD from a bank based in Switzerland. That dodgy chap is willing to hand it over to the finance minister for two and a half million Euro. The finance minister is prepared to fork that amount over. It looks like a lucrative investment for him. He reckons to receive between one hundred and four hundred million Euro by taking legal action against the German bank account holders.
You can easily imagine what all this signifies. Everybody and her dog in Germany have controversially debated for a stretch of time whether or not the finance minister should acquire that CD. By picking up German newspapers you could enjoy reading all sorts of qualified and less qualified opinions in that regard. The finance minister and the German government have ultimately determined to go for it. They’re set to purchase that CD.
That’s precisely when the finance minister strikes a less than convincing figure. He comparatively early formed the opinion to go for it and then asked his underlings to do some legal research on the issues involved. Which is to say that the legal research and its outcome weren’t exactly open ended. It would’ve been plenty more convincing if the finance minister had waited with his decision making until his underlings had completed their legal research.
Instead of jumping to conclusions, he should’ve been more cautious. On top of it, there are a few other issues here, which look like muddy waters. For instance, tax evasion is a criminal offence. But does the investigation and prosecution of tax evasion justify the government in resorting to dodgy means? Does the end justify the means? When it comes to investigating and prosecuting criminal offences, the state typically makes use of its original instruments designed for that sort of thing, namely police and public prosecutor’s offices as well as the internal revenue authority.
By contrast, acquiring a - presumably pinched - CD from a dodgy character cuts the mustard for clinching deals with criminals. Forging deals with criminals to investigate and prosecute criminal offences may violate the German variety of rule of law (in German Rechtsstaatsprinzip, which is guaranteed in the German constitution). All this paints in broad strokes why the purchase of that CD makes me feel less than thrilled.
Be that as it may. The German bank account holders in Switzerland are evidently well to do enough to conceal a bundle from the German tax authorities. Which is to say that they should make the cut for formidable adversaries. A few of them may go all the way to the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to clarify issues.
All the while, the Swiss authorities seem to be seriously peeved. They’re said to even toy with the idea of cancelling negotiations with Germany about a new double taxation agreement. The Swiss authorities are peeved because the German finance minister has determined to go for it and acquire the CD. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. The Swiss authorities are shaking in their shoes because the reputation of Switzerland as a discreet haven for asset management has taken quite a nosedive already.
Finally, instead of committing criminal offences along the line of tax evasion, it may be worth holding bank accounts in the Far East - e.g. in Hong Kong and Singapore.When doing your banking there with a Chinese financial institution, that outfit is most unlikely to be bullied around by Western authorities. Moreover, its staff answers the phone in Chinese. Western authorities won’t even understand “zao shang hao”.
