Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna confirmed on Friday that the Luxembourg Inland Revenue (ACD) had passed a number of cases related to the scheme on to the legal authorities. The minister revealed the news after the parliamentary commission on finance and the budget came together.
As Gramegna explained, to his knowledge the investigation had not yet concluded. As a result, he could not reveal just how much money had been defrauded, citing tax secrecy as the cause.
Opposition parties reacted with frustration at the Democratic Party statesman’s stance. CSV MP Laurent Mosar likened the approach to the same much-criticised government approach to the secret database affair. However, LSAP MP Franz Fayot defended the lack of information, explaining that the ACD was unable to provide a lot of detail due to the complexity of CumEx operations. He pointed out that these are transactions which occur quickly and are involved in an international network, making it difficult to even detect such fraud.
Other countries have adapted regulations to facilitate detecting this type of fraud. The Luxembourgish government is supporting European Commission initiatives designed to increase cooperation between individual tax authorities.
