German Federal Economic Ministry Wants to Combat Tax Fraud with Blockchain

[Leonardo]

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is planning to fight tax evasion schemes by using blockchain, German business news outlet WirtschaftsWoche reported Nov. 22.

Following the major European tax fraud scheme CumEx-Files, the BMWi has suggested that distributed ledger technology (DLT) is capable of making the tax system more efficient in terms of fraud prevention.

Discovered in 2017, the CumEx-Files was a tax fraud scheme that reportedly was used by a network of banks, stock traders and top lawyers to obtain billions from European treasuries through speculation with dividend tax. As a result of the CumEx scheme, the German economy has reportedly suffered the most, with at least around $63 billion in reported losses.

The Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMWi Christian Hirte stated that blockchain technology deployment “could ensure” that tax shares are “certainly traceable” at “any time.”

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, over $5 billion was washed through the German tax regulation loophole alone before 2012.

Earlier in November, the Thai Revenue Department revealed plans to track tax payments using DLT and machine learning, specifically intending to verify tax payments validity and to accelerate the tax refund process.

Previously, Cointelegraph reported on tax software firm Vertex suggesting that governments implement blockchain to improve tax systems.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/german-federal-economic-ministry-wants-to-combat-tax-fraud-with-blockchain