Offshores | German state fighting tentacles of tax fraud wants banks liable

Norbert Walter-Borjans, the finance minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia

Norbert Walter-Borjans, the finance minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has stopped at nothing in his quest to bring tax evaders to justice, even resorting to the purchase of leaked bank data in his pursuit of outstanding dues.
The publication of the Panama Papers, more than 11 million documents exposing the use of shell companies and the financial dealings of some of the world’s richest people, has made him even more resolute in his campaign as he calls for more accountability from banks and a better exchange of information between countries.
Financial institutions don’t do enough to point out loopholes in the law and in some cases even exploit them for their own gain and the gain of their clients, Walter-Borjans, 63, said in an interview in Berlin. Tougher sanctions against banks are not included in Germany’s 10-point plan to tackle international tax havens prompted by the Panama Papers.
“As institutions underpinning the state, banks should be obliged to draw attention to loopholes in the law, not use them to create business,” he said. “Because banks are systemically important in so many areas, they should be made more accountable, right up to and including a revocation of their license. That’s why we bailed them out.”
Walter-Borjans’s unorthodox methods have resulted in 6 billion euros (USD6.8 billion) in additional tax revenue since he began buying CDs that revealed secret bank accounts of North Rhine-Westphalia residents in 2010. North Rhine-Westphalia and the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony have used their influence in Germany’s upper house of parliament, made up of representatives of the country’s 16 states, to force tougher measures against white-collar crime.
With an area bigger than Belgium and an economy comparable in size to Switzerland, Germany’s most populous state has introduced amnesty programs and other measures, spurring an increase in the number of voluntary self-disclosures to avoid criminal prosecution in the minister’s crackdown. MDT/Bloomberg