Combating Withholding Tax Reclaim Schemes in Europe : An event study examining the effect of policies aimed at combating fraudulent withholding tax reclaim schemes

In the last decade, numerous tax scandals have been exposed to the public. Among the largest of these is the so-called CumEx scandal, which revealed how billions of euros have been fraudulently acquired from European treasuries through trading schemes taking advantage of loopholes in the dividend tax legislation. These schemes are the center of this thesis. The first scheme, referred to as cum-ex, allows investors to obtain numerous tax reimbursements for a single dividend withholding tax payment. The second scheme, known as cum-cum, is a tax arbitrage strategy that exploits differences in dividend taxation rates between domestic and foreign investors, thereby lowering the effective tax liabilities of the participants. This thesis contains an explanation of the inner workings of the schemes, an examination of their prevalence in various European countries, and an analysis of the effects of policy changes implemented to prevent the schemes from being executed. To assess the extent and development of the schemes we utilize daily transaction volume data of shares to detect abnormal trading activity around the ex-dividend date. Such abnormal activity is potentially indicative of the presence of cum-cum and cum-ex schemes. We assess the impact of policy changes taken to combat the schemes by comparing trading patterns around the ex-dividend date before and after the implementation of said changes. We analyze nine separate reforms in seven countries aimed at combating cum-cum and cumex schemes. We find evidence of significant abnormal share trading around the ex-date in five out of seven countries, indicative of dividend tax schemes being present. We find that policy changes implemented in four out of nine reforms, in Germany (two separate reforms), France, and Finland, have led to a significant decline in abnormal trading correlating with that of known tax schemes. In the latter four countries, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway, the implemented policy changes had no significant impact on trading patterns, indicative of policy changes being ineffective in combating the cum-cum and cum-ex schemes.nhhma

Mechanisms of ECG signs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often have abnormal ECGs. Our aim was to separate the effects on ECG by airway obstruction, emphysema and right ventricular (RV) afterload in patients with COPD. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 101 patients with COPD without left heart disease and 32 healthy age-matched controls. Body mass index (BMI) was measured, and pulmonary function tests, ECG, echocardiography and right heart catheterisation (only patients) were performed. Variables were grouped into (1) airway obstruction by FEV% (percentage of forced expiratory volume)_predicted, (2) emphysema by residual volume/total lung capacity and residual volume (percent of predicted) and (3) RV afterload by mean pulmonary pressure, artery compliance, vascular resistance and RV wall thickness. Results: In multivariate regression analysis, emphysema correlated negatively to R+S amplitudes in horizontal and frontal leads, RV/left ventricle (LV) end-diastolic volume ratio to horizontal amplitudes and BMI negatively to frontal amplitudes. Increased airway obstruction, RV afterload and BMI correlated with horizontal QRS-axis clockwise rotation. Airway obstruction, RV afterload, RV/LV end-diastolic volume ratio and BMI correlated to the Sokolow-Lyon Index for RV, and RV afterload negatively to Sokolow-LyonIndex for LV. Several classical ECG changes could, however, not be ascribed to specific mechanisms. Conclusions: In COPD, the various pathophysiological mechanisms modify the ECG differently. Increased airway obstruction and RV afterload mainly increase the Sokolow-Lyon Index for RV mass and associate with clockwise rotation of the horizontal QRS-axis, whereas emphysema reduces the QRS amplitudes. BMI is an equally important determinant for the majority of the ECG changes