Uria & Menendez, the previous employer of Mr. Jesus Perez de la Cruz, lawyer acting for Nordea, wrote in a 2006 report that coming up with a debt to reduce the value of the property was likely to be challenged by the Spanish authorities because it was a “simulation”. Just as Christen Amby, member of the Danish Taxes Assocation, said recently on occasion of the publication of a series of articles in Denmark relating to a mirror product offered by Sydbank, and in relation to the position of the Spanish Tax Office: “This is cheating the Spanish Inland Revenue”.
We understand that lawyers have a duty to defend their clients, but is it ethical to be on both sides of the fence?
Documents
I would agree entirely with your comments in so much that Nordea seem to have got them selves in a fix over the tax issues. For example Nordea tax advice in a document they produced ( of which ERVA has copies ) stated in 2006 at the same time as this tax lawyers report was published that the general advantages of thier equity release scheme did the following. Reduced income tax – No tax when switching investments -Reduced Wealth Tax – Reduced inheritance tax – Clearly defined tax situation. Yet when these schemes came to light they commisioned a tax report/opinion from their tax lawyers. FornesaPradaFernandez titled “Tax & Regulatory Summary – Unit Linked Insurance Contracts Nordea Life & Pension in June 2010 .
INTRODUCTION. Quote The present document is a summary of the main tax issues laid down in our Legal Opinion of June 1, 2010 (“the legal opinion”) for the purpose of this summary we will assume the following facts: (i) the Cient(i.e. policy holder AND insured life) is a Spanish tax resident; (ii) the beneficiary/ies of the insurance could be either Spanish tax residents or Non-Spanish tax residents;(iii) Nordea Life & Pensions,SA (“NLP”) is not established in Spain according to the Tax Treaty between Spain and Luxembourg; (iv) the client is not entitled to modify the assets linked to the contract and has no influence on the asset managers investment decision, and (v) the contract is NOT concluded in Spain. As far as ERVA is concerned all the contracts entered into by Nordea clients WERE not only concluded in Spain but were sold in Spain directly by Nordea and in some cases through IFA’s that were not registered with the CNMV (Spanish Regulatory Authority. Not only were Nordea guilty and in breech of these regulations but the same would appear from our research so were all the other banks involved in mirror images of the now “infamous” Equity Release Schemes. It is time the Spanish Government realised that they are potentially being cheated out of millions of Euro, as the Danish Tax Authorities have intimated and have a full investigation into these banks and IFA’s