Fake Story

 I read around 300-odd business-related stories each week.  This week, I picked up this one story....relating to the German election and worried 'rich' Germans who were moving money out of the country.

After reading through the 30-line story, I put the piece down and stamped it 'fake'.

Whoever wrote this....wanted to convey that 'rich' Germans are extremely worried over increasing taxation that is likely to come as 2022 starts up.  No one argues over that point.

But then they wanted to convey that the money was moving presently into Switzerland (a safe harbor for cash up until the 1990s).  From that point on in the story....it was pretty much fake news.

I won't argue at some point in time....Switzerland (Luxembourg & Liechtenstein included) were getting tons of business from Germans trying to hide money.  At some point, even the upper-middle-class (plumbers, and handy-men) were driving over to Luxembourg every six months with a bag of 40k DMs (money they earned under the table and didn't want to report to the German tax office). 

Then, the German tax office got aggressive.....even buying data from bank clerks.....to ID the people with secret bank accounts.  Over the past twenty years....things changed and the idea of a secret Swiss or Liechtenstein account became a joke.

These days....if you have a million Euro and don't want to be taxed....you end going to places like Cyprus, Greece or Czech.....creating a fake business front and then creating a second headquarters company out of some Pacific country.....making it near impossible for the German tax authorities to get into your business.  You partner up with some group....buy a freighter, and your profits roll into a secretive account....or you buy a hotel in some manner where the profits are never taxed at the German rate.

The Americans who read this fake story?  They think rich Germans just now woke up to increasing taxes, while the truth is that they've been hyped-up and critical on taxes for forty-odd years.  

What will change as we get into 2022?  I suspect a dozen-odd tax gimmicks will be implemented....some affecting the ultra rich, some for the moderate rich, and some affecting everyone in general.  Everyone will whine about the cost of living going up and being highly critical over food bumping up almost monthly.  The extension of the current recession going throughout all of 2022?  More than likely at this point.  

And yes, at some point.....the regular German will review the hiding of income as a necessity.