The Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt (New Flemish Alliance) has asked Eurocontrol to give him data on private jets going to tax havens, De Tijd and L’Echo reported on Saturday.
To be able to fly in Europe, private jet owners – even those officially registered in tax havens – have to pay contributions to Eurocontrol every year. Eurocontrol currently has 41 member countries.
Among the millions of documents in the Paradise Papers, newspapers found other Eurocontrol invoices addressed to locations in tax havens.
Eurocontrol has refused to provide figures regarding the number of private jets which are billed to addresses in tax havens. But Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt has requested access to this data via his colleague, Mobility Minister François Bellot (MR). He also requested figures for the organisation’s other 40 member countries. “We can’t lose sight of European interests”, the Minister wrote. “Belgium isn’t the only country that loses out because of these constructions. The data Eurocontrol and other organisations collect can be a precious source of information for many countries in their fight against tax fraud. This is an international goal”, says the Minister.
The Brussels Times
