BERLIN: The German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has bought a further CD with details of potential tax evaders, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.
Since 2010, NRW has bought several CDs containing data of tax evaders. The new CD contains information on around 70 billion euros’ ($77 billion) worth of transactions and concerns both German and foreign banks, the person said.
How much of the transaction volume is subject to tax must now be analysed, the person added.
German magazine Spiegel earlier reported that the CD was the ninth to be purchased by NRW since 2010 and that since then the state has reaped an additional 2 billion euros in income from tax back-payments and fines on banks.
Across Germany, the additional income is estimated at 4-5 billion euros and around 120,000 Germans have voluntarily admitted to tax evasion in a bid to avoid jail time, the Spiegel article said.
A spokeswoman for the finance ministry in Duesseldorf, the state capital, said the ministry was continually offered information and checked whether or not to buy it. “It’s an ongoing business,” she said.
