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55 MILLIARDS VOLÉS PAR LA FINANCE : L'ÉTAT COMPLICE ? - YouTube
Channel: Le Fil d'Actu - Officiel
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Hello and welcome to this new episode of
Le Fil d'Actu,
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the show that gives meaning to information.
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55 billion euros
($63.5 billion)
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got embezzled by unscrupulous traders
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who set up a massive fraud
and tax optimization system
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off the backs of millions of European taxpayers.
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Sounds like the scenario of
Martin Scorsese's next movie, but it isn't.
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It is the latest big financial scandal reported
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by Le Monde newspaper on October 18th.
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This new "greatest robbery of the century"
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is all the more problematic since
a large part of the money
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was embezzled completely legally
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by means of a mechanism that is still at work
in our country today
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and that the government doesn't seem
to be willing to question.
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« A vast financial manipulation on dividends
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has just been reported by a consortium of several European newspapers.
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Investigated in Germany,
the so-called "Cum-Ex" scandal
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incriminates a gang of traders, bankers
and lawyers evading taxes. »
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Overall, 55.2 billion euros
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were taken by Cum-Ex and
other similar transactions in Europe.
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This is probably one of the biggest tax robbery
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in the whole European history. »
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« Something is shocking, excuse me, but we learnt today that
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Jérôme Kerviel during his examination,
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namely in front of the Senate commission,
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told this story over 5 years ago.
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And nobody believed him though
he explained it was happening
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off the side of his desk. »
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« So the IRS didn't know?
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Probably not, for they would've sanctionned that...
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- Erm...the... the IRS does... does know
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that it exists. »
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In order to understand the situation, let's see how our economic system works.
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Basically, when a company needs funding, it sells shares of stock, that is,
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units of ownership interest.
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Every year, the shareholders get a part of the company's profit - called "the dividend".
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Of course, part of this dividend is charged by the state
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in order to support the national budget.
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The foreign investors who are not paying the income tax in that particular country,
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have to pay a specific tax on dividends.
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Yet, in the middle of the 2000s, in Germany,
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a small clique of finance specialists
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set up a completely illegal method
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in order to divert the tax for their benefit.
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This is an exceedingly easy method:
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working together, several investors can buy and resell a large amount of shares
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around the day when the firm pays out its dividend
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so quickly that the tax authorities are unable to identify who is the true owner.
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Then, they can claim multiple rebates for tax paid
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on the dividend they have never earned
- and therefore, never paid tax on.
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« When you're a foreigner, in some countries,
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you can claim rebate for tax paid on dividend. »
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« The whole fraud, the scheme, the scam
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relies on the idea to make the administration believe
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that several people have earned the dividend
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and can all request tax refunds while
only one earned the dividend. »
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Overall, over 7 billion euros were stolen
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from German taxpayers
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with the collusion of the banks.
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All that happened between 2005 and 2012, that is,
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the period when our states were going
into massive debt
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in order to save the very same banks that were allegedly on the verge of bankruptcy.
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« Spotted by a tax inspector,
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this trick has been subject to multiple legal investigations
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and became illegal in 2012.
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Thus, shareholders have relocated their businesses
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in Austria where we know it happened in 2011 and 2012,
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in Denmark where it happened from 2012 to 2015,
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and then Belgium and Switzerland
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where there were fraud cases until 2017.
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As of today, we don't know whether
it is still going on in Europe. »
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« In France only, the prejudice for the state is around
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17 billion euros. »
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But this massive scam is only a tiny part of the problem,
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for today in France it is the easiest thing for a wealthy foreign investor
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to evade dividend tax
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in a perfectly legal way.
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All he has to do is lend his shares to a French bank shortly before the dividends are paid.
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The bank gets the dividends instead of him
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then gives them back to him along with his shares.
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It's a very common method, and all banks openly do it.
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Every year, it amounts to a 3 billion euro shortfall for the community,
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that taxpayers need to make up in a way or another.
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« +23% in a year
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- that's the increase in diesel oil price at the pumps. »
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« At the cash register, an average 30 cents add up
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to the current 7 euro increase for a pack of cigarettes. »
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« You could be unpleasantly surprised
by your next gas bill.
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Its price is going to rise by 5.4% on November 1st. »
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Of course, all of this is very worrying
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because today, in our country,
a handful of priviledged people
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can evade a compulsory tax in a completely legal way,
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because this flaw is well-known by tax authorities
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and the state turns a blind eye to it
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while it's constantly telling us it is running out of money.
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« Look at our social policy!
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We spend a crazy amount of dough
into our social benefits
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yet people are still poor. »
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Meanwhile average citizens
have no means of evading taxes
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and pay a hefty price if they try to avoid it.
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Yet, forbidding this method seems possible
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since Germany or the USA have forbidden it,
for the better,
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but the French government dreads financial markets.
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But how can we justify the hypocrisy
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of setting up a tax along with
an obvious legal means to evade it?
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How can we explain this double standard in the way laws are enforced?
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How can this not raise our mistrust in the institutions
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as well as our deep sense of injustice
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towards a system that is acting only
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in the immediate interests of the wealthy few.
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Today, the political and financial elites are complaining about people's mistrust.
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But if they really want to understand why,
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they may need to watch their own behavior first.
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Thank you for being with us in
Le Fil d'Actu,
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that's all for today.
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Don't hesitate to share this video if you enjoyed it
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and support our work via our Tipeee page.
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See you soon for the next episode of
Le Fil d'Actu,
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the show that gives meaning to information.
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