In previous studies, Scholz referred to gaps in memory.
(Photo: Reuters)
Berlin The Cum-Ex investigative committee demanded by the Union is approaching. A legal opinion by the Bundestag administration smashes the SPD’s legal concerns. This means that the committee of inquiry could start before the summer break.
The investigative committee is to shed light on whether today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) influenced the tax authorities to the detriment of the taxpayer when he was mayor of Hamburg in 2016. The SPD had registered constitutional concerns because a federal body is to investigate events at state level.
In her short report for the Bundestag’s Rules of Procedure Committee, the author writes that the Bundestag is not allowed to review processes in the federal states without limits. Nevertheless, the establishment of a committee of inquiry is very likely to be legal.
“A control of the actions of state authorities by parliamentary investigative committees of the Bundestag is not constitutionally excluded from the outset,” says the report. This is quite possible, for example for the “political assessment of the supervisory activities of the federal government”.
“The note supports our legal opinion,” says Union parliamentary group leader Mathias Middelberg. Specifically, this would be about the implementation of federal tax law. The states only acted as an extended arm of the federal administration.
Committee of inquiry puts traffic light parties in a bind
“The federal government can even issue instructions in individual cases – as happened in Hamburg,” said Middelberg. “In this constellation, the federal government and thus also the Bundestag must be allowed to check the administrative execution up to the last instance.”
The Union’s demand for the establishment of a Cum-Ex committee of inquiry puts the traffic light parties in a bind. According to estimates, banks and investors cheated the taxpayers out of a two-digit billion sum in the affair by having the state reimburse them with capital gains tax several times through trickery. While it was long disputed whether the questionable procedure was illegitimate but not illegal, there are now judgments from the highest courts that have declared the actions of the financial sector to be illegal.
>> Read here: According to statements in the committee of inquiry, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still under pressure
The Hamburg private bank Warburg was also involved in the Cum-Ex affair. When the tax offices nationwide demanded back unjustly paid tax refunds, only the Hamburg tax administration waived a repayment of the Warburg-Bank for 2009 in the amount of 47 million euros.
The private bank MM Warburg & CO involved in the Cum-Ex scandal in downtown Hamburg.
(Photo: IMAGO/Hanno Bode)
A year later it was about another repayment of 43 million euros. It was only requested by the Hamburg tax authorities after intervention by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Scholz was the mayor of Hamburg at the time. The question now is whether political intervention motivated the tax authorities to forego tax refunds.
The affair also became politically explosive when, in the course of investigations by the public prosecutor, diary entries by the then Warburg boss Christian Olearius appeared. There he reported on a lively exchange with the tax administration and two meetings as well as a telephone call with Scholz.
Greens are open to committee
In hearings before the Finance Committee of the Bundestag and the Committee of Inquiry in Hamburg, Scholz repeatedly referred to gaps in memory, which the opposition never believed. However, no one could prove to Scholz that he actually intervened. The proof is missing.
The Greens in particular had campaigned in the past to clarify what was perhaps the biggest tax scandal. However, it is also clear that the Union’s main goal with the committee of inquiry is to put Chancellor Scholz under pressure in the upcoming election campaign. But it is difficult for the eco-party to stab its own chancellor in the back.
>> Read here: Supervision complaint against the head of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office
On the other hand, the Greens care about minority rights in parliament, according to which the opposition can set up a committee of inquiry if 25 percent of MPs demand it. For example, the Greens, together with the FDP, tried to clear up the Wirecard scandal in a committee of inquiry during opposition times.
The Greens are therefore open to setting up a committee of inquiry – on condition that this is constitutional. However, formulating an application accordingly is not that difficult, it said.
More: Olearius has to go to court – charges against longtime head of Warburg Bank approved