Tax evasion ace Malta takes over EU presidency

(B2) Entrusting the reins of a bank to a robber... it's a bit like what the European Union seems to be doing at the start of the year. The image may seem daring. But when we read the investigation report just published by the Greens group in the European Parliament when Malta takes over the presidency of the European Union, it seems obvious. Malta, this pleasant island, with blue lagoons and pleasant seabeds for divers, conceals other assets, just as attractive, for investors looking for a discreet place to "escape" their money.

Malta's tax system offers most large corporations a tax rate of only 5% - even 0% in some cases ". This very advantageous tax regime made other countries lose nearly 14 billion euros in taxes between 2012 and 2015 ” denounce the Greens, updating a series of ingenious mechanisms, intended to allow investors to derive maximum profit. Worse, the opacity of the Maltese system is called into question.

Maltese justice has oversights when it comes to money laundering or tax evasion. " Several politicians in the country have been pinned down without any serious investigation into these cases of money laundering and tax evasion having so far emerged. ". " The situation is, to say the least, burlesque” denounces the MEP Eva Joly, who has some experience of these cases for having been a magistrate of the financial prosecutor's office. "With Jean-Claude Juncker, veteran of the tax war, currently at the head of the European Commission and, as of today, a country at the Presidency of the Council which looks like a tax haven, the tandem is, to say the least, disconcerting. »

(NGV)

Download the investigation report