Hearings

Several money laundering cases have been published in the recent years affecting different EU Member States. Given that some Maltese political exposed persons have been mentioned in different money laundering cases, an exchange of letters took place between the TAX3 committee and Maltese authorities in order to better understand the government's role and actions taken the Maltese authorities.

Accommodation is an important part of citizens spending that price increase in real estate impacts.

Deutsche Bank is one of the world systemic banks. In the recent years media have published different pieces of news on alleged money laundering and tax evasion activities involving Deutsche Bank. In order to shed some light to the different cases affecting the bank's public image a DB representative will describe the internal policy of this institution as well as the mechanisms in place to curb these activities.

On 29th of January, from 14.30 to 17.30, the TAX3 committee will hold a public hearing on “Money laundering cases involving Russian individuals and their effect on the EU”. Two panels combining experts including among others Mr Bill Browder will shed light on the complex cases of money laundering recently discovered. These cases have affected banks and finance corporations across the EU and evidence shows linkages with organized crime, such as demonstrated in the murder of Mr Magnitsky.

On 24th of January, from 10.30 to 12.00, the TAX3 committee will hold a public hearing on "The evaluation of the Tax Gap". The target of the hearing is to better understand the different methodologies to assess the amount of tax evasion and avoidance. The experts invited have published various and relevant articles and books aiming at better assessing the dimensions of this problem which would help policy makers to better tackle this issue.

On 24 January 2019, the TAX3 Committee will hold a hearing on “Alleged financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance in Slovakia”. Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in February in what was the first targeted killing of a reporter in the country's history. Mr Kuciak, who was 27 at the time of his murder, had been investigating alleged financial crimes and tax frauds.

Further to the hearing with multinational corporations held on 21 June 2018 at which McDonald’s and Nike Inc. participated, the TAX3 Committee decided to hold a second hearing on 27 November with the Kering Group, Google and Facebook.

On Monday 26 November 2018, from 19.00 to 20.30, TAX3 together with the ECON Committee will hold a public hearing on “Cum-Ex scandal: financial crime and the loopholes in the current legal framework”. The purpose of this hearing is to examine the recent revelation of the CumEx files, which has shown that over EUR 55 billion have been defrauded through various schemes.

In light of the recent serious allegations of money laundering involving some EU financial institutions, particularly Danske Bank and ING Groep, the TAX3 Committee has decided to hold a hearing on money laundering in banks on 21 November 2018 with a view to improving the financial supervisory system. This hearing is the second one that held by the TAX3 Committee on this particular matter.

On 15 October 2018, the TAX3 Committee will hold a public hearing on "Golden visas and other national schemes providing tax privileges (free ports, special economic zones)" consisting of two panels.