Germany Tips Off Euro Neighbours Over Tax Evasion

Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmir) Published August 05, 2016 | 04:15 PM

FRANKFURT,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Augst,2016) - German officials said Friday they have passed more than 100,000 details of bank accounts suspected of involvement in tax evasion to their colleagues across Europe.

Authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said they have given access to three separate troves of data from a Swiss bank and a Luxemburg one to their European counterparts.

The move was "an important message to tax cheats: more and more hiding places for your unreported money are being discovered," regional finance minister Norbert Walter-Borjans said. The biggest package of data stemmed from a hard drive sent by an anonymous whistleblower to tax inspectors in the western state. The hard drive contained details of almost 160,000 accounts held in a Luxemburg bank by citizens of 20 European nations including Germany, the statement said.