The Belgian tax authorities have summoned a series of Americans and pension funds in New York, spread over seven lawsuits, with a claim of at least 45 million euros. That writes De Tijd on Thursday. The subpoenas, dating back to late July, are an offshoot of the CumEx scandal.
–
That scandal revolves around fraudsters who falsely claimed the repayment of withholding tax on dividends. A group of media, including De Tijd, revealed in 2018 that eleven European countries were affected and lost a total of 55.2 billion euros.
The Belgian state lost 201.5 million euros. The courts and the tax authorities are now making efforts to recover the money and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The summonses in New York, which De Tijd was able to view, fit in that context. As far as we know, it is the first time that the Belgian tax authorities are taking CumEx fraudsters to court. Lawsuits have been ongoing in other countries for some time.
The tax authorities are targeting eight Americans, seven pension funds and the stock broker FGC Securities as perpetrators or accomplices.
According to the Belgian summonses, they always proceeded in the same way in the period 2012-2015. They set up pension funds. They then argued that they owned shares of Belgian listed companies and that they paid us withholding tax on dividends from those companies.
Then the eight Americans claimed the withholding tax of 25 percent from our tax authorities, while the pension funds were not real, they owned no shares and therefore received no dividends.
–
