Re:Denmark: No aid for companies which pay out dividends or ...
by drsim on Monday April 20, 2020 @01:52PM
(#22926426)
Thank you. I was aware of the money laundering. What Danske Bank did is under investigation for being illegal under 'hvidvaskloven'. Let's see how that goes, but the company and its directors are expected to face consequences.
That case has nothing to do with a 'tax haven', unless a pattern is formed and the authorities turn a blind eye.
I didn't know about the Kommanditselskab company form. It does appear to have been abused, but I can see this is something the tax authorities are on the case with.
Link in Danish to a report from 2016:
https://www.ft.dk/samling/20151/almdel/SAU/bilag/165/1619506...
How possible it is to act as a tax have and how friendly a country is to be used like that is a spectrum. The Tax Justice Network report you linked puts Denmark very low on that ranking and tiny (their word) in volume.
That was apparently misused by a relatively small companies abroad, where passing profits through this company would keep the information from the right authorities. Not really sure what happened with the case, new rulesets were applied to combat potential abuse.
Another high profile case was the "Danish Bank" (not to be confused with the national Bank of Denmark) which was involved in some huge money laundering in Estonia, potentially allowing as much as 200 billion EUR pass through it without asking too many questions.
A report from the Tax Justice Network: https://fsi.taxjustice.net/PDF/Denmark.pdf