Bulgaria: amnesty proposed over the Panama Papers.

A Bulgarian MP has proposed a tax amnesty programme for citizens holding funds in bank accounts in offshore jurisdictions, following the publication of the Panama Papers. Antoni Trenchev, an MP from the Reformist Bloc, the junior partner in the governing coalition, said that Bulgaria could allow citizens with offshore bank accounts to deposit their money in Bulgarian banks by a specified deadline, subject to a one-off tax of 15%, thereby avoiding possible tax-evasion penalties from the National Revenue Agency (NRA). Not every Bulgarian person or company holding money in an offshore account conceals a criminal, but there may be abuse of the legitimate financing instrument concerning funds... Let us return to the issue. Repatriating offshore money to Bulgaria could increase the liquidity of the country’s banks and lead to lower lending rates. Last Tuesday, the NRA formally requested information about Bulgarians whose names appear in the Panama Papers, documents showing how tax havens are used to conceal wealth. The request was submitted to the Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa, the only Bulgarian partner of the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the organisation that published articles based on documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The few Bulgarian businesspeople whose names have so far been reported by 24 Chasa as appearing in the Panama Papers have all denied wrongdoing. There are no names of former Bulgarian politicians. According to 24 Chasa, at least 50 companies, 16 business owners and 78 partners from across Bulgaria were linked in the leaked documents to registrations in offshore jurisdictions worldwide.