German
Bundestag, September 9, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/172, pp. 21547-21548
Frau
President. Herr Minister Scholz. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
The
so-called Cum/Ex business is a matter involving the greatest tax fraud in the
history of the Federal Republic. For years, investors and banks have defrauded
the state by means of the capital gains tax on stock dividends. The Federal
government has much too late acknowledged this fraud and much too late acted.
It emanates from a mixture of incompetence and lobby influence.
In
2012, the legal regulation was at last changed. Yet this was not sufficient. As
before, there persists an urgent need to act so as to prevent further tax
fraud, as reputable tax experts, tax judges and the Federal Audit Authority are
reminding; keyword, “Cum/Cum” or “Cum/Fake”.
The
scale of this tax fraud is immense. Estimates speak of at least 32 billion
euros since 2001. That this tax fraud has still not been effectively impeded is
a failure of this Federal government and of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz,
ladies and gentlemen.
That
alone is bad enough. Now it has been made known that Olaf Scholz during his
time as Hamburg’s First Bürgermeister played a disreputable role in the
elaboration of the Cum/Ex scandal. Moreover, he has deceived the Finance
Committee, ladies and gentlemen. The Warburg private bank of Hamburg was
involved in the Cum/Ex wheeling and dealing. This bank was exempted from paying
back illegally written off capital gains tax credits totaling 47 million euros
by the Hamburg Finance Administration – then under First Bürgermeister Olaf
Scholz and Finance Senator Tschentscher who today is Bürgermeister. This ought not
to have happened, ladies and gentlemen.
Herr
Scholz may not wish to remember the many meetings in the years 2016 and 2017
with the head of the Warburg bank, against whom an investigative procedure was
being conducted on account of tax fraud. When he was questioned on this in the
Bundestag Finance Committee, he conceded only one unimportant meeting. He was reticent
concerning further contacts. Meanwhile, it has been made known that three
meetings and a telephone call occurred. Unfortunately, Herr Federal Minister
Scholz can no longer recall the contents of the conversations. That is
unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen.
As was
acknowledged, three days after the telephone call between Herr Scholz and the
head of the bank, the Hamburg Finance Administration renounced the demand for
the 47 million euros. That is no accident, ladies and gentlemen. The
clarification which you are currently pushing does not convince me. Ja, perhaps in your eyes 47 million
euros is just peanuts, considering the hundreds of billions which you have
loaded onto the citizens in the coming Federal budget. Those are details,
already forgotten. The Warburg donation of over 45,000 euros to the Hamburg SPD
must in this relation be mentioned. Herr Minister, what you present here goes
too far and it does not fly.
Herr
Minister, how do you wish to explain that to millions of honorable taxpayers? People
must have the impression that here there are two standards of measurement. For the
large amounts, the state apparently is not so precise. How indeed do you wish
to explain that to the many citizens who have been hit or are threatened with
unemployment, not least on account of the Federal government’s false policy on Corona
matters, where many businesses and self-employed stand before ruin?
All
of that undermines trust in our state organizations, in the state of law and in
democracy – and yet not least, in the Federal Minister.
Against
the background of your actions, Herr Minister Scholz, in the Cum/Ex scandal and
yet also in the face of your department’s failure of financial supervision in
the Wirecard affair, I demand of you: Resign!
Dagmar Ziegler (SPD): You better sit
down.
[trans:
tem]
