TAX NEWS - June 2010

German Tax: Germany buys data on tax evasion via Switzerland

BERLIN: German authorities say they have bought another CD containing data that documents tax evasion through Switzerland.

German government says in a statement released Wednesday that the data show tax evasion by up to 20,000 German investors. The statement gives no more information, and does not say from whom the disc was purchased.

The finance minister of Lower Saxony, Hartmut Moellring, told German news agency DAPD that the federal government and the states paid euro185,000 ($220,000) to an undisclosed source and expect several million in back taxes.

German authorities recently bought other CDs with tax evasion data, which has led to the recovery of multiple-millions in back taxes.