|
In
the past three years alone, Denmark figures it has lost 12.3
billion Danish crowns ($1.87 billion) in tax fraud. Hence the
decision announced on Friday to start hiring people instead of
firing them.
"The Danish people's faith in the tax system is rapidly falling,
which is a worrying symptom in a trust-based taxation system
like the Danish one," Minister for Taxation Karsten Lauritzen
told a news conference on Friday.
With a total tax burden amounting to 51 percent of gross
domestic product, Danes carry the highest tax burden in the
world, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development.
In a bid to save money, the government cut 4,000 jobs in the tax
inspectorate starting in 2006. Now it plans to add 2,000 people
as part of the upgrade, which will cost 7 billion Danish crowns
($1.06 billion), the minister said.
In an effort to recoup money paid out in the form of fraudulent
tax refunds to people outside the country, Danish authorities
have carried out raids in Britain and elsewhere.
Evidence relating to at least 12 companies was seized and 2.1
billion crowns have been frozen in foreign bank accounts, tax
authorities said on Wednesday.
"Today we are beginning to build up the tax authority from the
bottom, and new energy is needed for that assignment," the
minister said.
Executive director of Danish tax authority SKAT Jesper Ronnow
Simonsen has been put on immediate leave, and current head of
customer relations Merete Agergaard is constituted as new
director.
(Reporting by Annabella Pultz Nielsen)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
