Lithuania’s tax authority pledges to investigate all Lithuanians mentioned in Panama Papers

“Today, it is still hard to say unequivocally that people and companies named in the Panama Papers stories violated the law, since tax evasion schemes through offshore companies can be pinned down only by control procedures,” Dainoras Bradauskas, head of the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI), has told 15min.lt.

He added that deals or links with offshore companies had always put individuals and businesses on tax inspectors’ radar, making them more likely to be inspected.

“We are under a legal obligation to disclose all information about any control action [undertaken by tax inspectors], but I we would like to assure everyone that all the deals and links of Lithuanian taxpayers mentioned in the Panama Papers will be considered,” Bradauskas said, adding that the VMI is closely following reporting on the Panama Papers.

The Panama Papers are about 11 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca which specializes in setting up offshore companies in tax havens. It has been revealed that many of these companies have been used to evade taxes or circumvent government oversight.

So far, the Lithuanian online newspaper 15min.lt, which has access to the leaked documents, has reported about offshore companies linked to former president of the Lithuanian Football Federation Liutauras Varanavičius.