Volkswagen faces tax-evasion probe in Germany

Volkswagen reportedly faces a tax-evasion investigation at home in Germany, as prosecutors explore wider potential charges related to the emissions scandal.

Prosecutors are reportedly considering tax-evasion or fraud charges, with a focus on five VW employees that may have been involved in the scheme. It was earlier this month, the company had said that it found “unexplained inconsistencies” in emissions from more of its vehicles of carbon dioxide.

Volkswagen admitted in September that it installed software in up to 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide that vastly understated their actual emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxides, causing the biggest business scandal in Volkswagen’s 78-year history. It was revealed that the focus of the investigation was on tax breaks Volkswagen received for producing low polluting cars that the company might not have qualified for if the emissions were correctly reported.

The news did nothing to hurt Volkswagen’s market rally, with the company leading the DAX during midday trading in Frankfurt with shares up 5.4 percent to 115.80 euros ($123.39). It’s being conducted by prosecutors in Brunswick, near VW headquarters in Wolfsburg.

If this doesn’t make sense to some people outside Germany is because not all countries calculate yearly taxes based on Carbon dioxide emission, but the Germans do, and they use the numbers provided by manufacturers to calculate the quotas. “That is a good development”.

Audi estimated costs of the fix to be in the “mid-double-digit millions”.