Assessing the Cum-Ex Trade

Abstract

This chapter examines how the cum-ex transaction has been assessed to date before arguing that those assessments reflect a limited understanding of the real complexity and wider causes and implications of schemes such as the cum-ex trade. The reaction to cum-ex in the media and in political circles has focused on the scale of financial loss to the state and on the culpability of the individuals involved. This response to cum-ex involves relatively little focus on the nature of the transaction itself or how it came about. However, this chapter raises wider questions as to what transactions like cum-ex tell us about the nature of banks and inter-bank market activities, and what they reveal about tax systems. The chapter also explains what is meant by talking of bank ‘misconduct’, and considers the problematic distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion.