“The British Channel Island of Jersey is one of the most popular tax havens among Germans. In 2018, German citizens parked a total of 180.8 billion euros in accounts in Jersey, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) quote from a response from the Federal Ministry of Finance to a question from the Left faction.
Jersey has so far played no role in the debate on measures to combat German tax evasion. According to the report, only Jersey has countries with Switzerland and Liechtenstein that play a central role in the debate. According to the Ministry of Finance, 133.1 billion euros were reported from Switzerland in accounts of Germans in 2018 and 125.8 billion euros from Luxembourg.
In total, Germans had at least 591.3 billion euros in accounts at the tax havens listed by the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2018. The basis of the data is the so-called automatic exchange of information. In doing so, states inform each other about accounts held by foreign taxpayers. This is intended to make tax evasion more difficult.
However, the Statistics of the Ministry of Finance do not say whether the money is legal or illegal. This is checked by the competent tax authorities after the data have been submitted. According to the SZ, however, important tax havens are probably missing from the ministry’s list. For example, the Caribbean islands of Cayman and the Bahamas require statistics on their countries to remain secret.
