Fight against tax fraud and tax havens looking promising

4th August 2008

“The present business model of banks and tax havens, which so readily accepts tax fraud and even promotes it and profits from it, has no future”, said the president of the Lisbon Network of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and former German Finance Minister Hans Eichel in a public statement today in Brussels and Berlin. In his declaration, Hans Eichel made a reference to the scandals involving two banks from Liechtenstein, which Germany is currently investigating, and the Swiss bank UBS, the practices of which are being examined by both the US Congress and US Attorney. Hans Eichel added: “If the Americans now join the fight against tax fraud and havens with all the means available to them, the issue takes a whole new dimension with totally different opportunities for success.” Eichel also announced that the PES Lisbon Network is going to intensively work on this topic. He called on Switzerland, Liechtenstein and other tax havens in Europe to stop protecting tax evaders and to cooperate with the tax authorities of other countries, as decided by the OECD. The USA and most of the European countries have been doing so for quite some time.

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