(Bloomberg) -- Denmark is targeting a number of entities in the U.K. as part of its efforts to recover a total of 12.7 billion kroner ($2 billion) in one of the country’s biggest tax-fraud cases.
The money, which the Danish government says was wrongly paid out to cover fake dividend refund claims over several years, was first officially identified as missing in 2015.
Danish authorities are now “engaged in various civil law measures in several countries, where there may be opportunities to apply for the proceeds or to institute civil proceedings and to claim damages,” Steen Bechmann Jacobsen, director of special control at the Danish Tax Agency, said in an emailed reply to questions. “This applies, among other places, to England.”
On July 27, Denmark filed a suit with the High Court in London against 71 individuals and corporate entities alleging that pension plans and investment funds received tax refunds from the Danish government to which they weren’t entitled, legal website Law360.com reported earlier.
In May, the Danish Tax Agency started pursuing claims in the U.S. It alleges it wrongly paid out dividend tax refunds to agents representing 277 pension plans in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Malaysia and Luxembourg.
Danish companies are required to withhold a 27 percent tax on dividends, a levy that’s refundable to foreign shareholders. At least three individuals have already been charged in connection with the tax-fraud scheme.
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