This is what our colleagues over at the Süddeutsche Zeitung found according to an article published earlier today.
According to NDR and WDR research (Norddeutscher Rundfunk/public service broadcasting in northern Germany, and Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, public service audiovisual for western Germany, respectively), for every 100 rich Germans registering a company, 20 of these do so in the Luxembourg trade register.
More than 4 years after the scandalous "LuxLeaks" revelations, the Luxembourg Government is trying to attract new companies to national territory through extremely low tax rates, despite political leaders’ contrary assertions.
European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici, who is cited at length in the article, states that Luxembourg rewards aggressive tax planning. So while collaboration with the Luxembourg Government has been harmonious since 2014, many problems remain unsolved.
The article includes an example to illustrate the current state of affairs: a German holding company – owned by the Reimann family and managing a number of coffee and hygiene products – made roughly 388 million Euro worth of profits in 2017. Of this total sum, only a little over 1 million Euro was paid to tax authorities, in other words, less than half a percent of the profit.
