No reward for tax evasion whistle-blowers

An informant has offered to provide the German government with the names of 1,500 alleged tax evaders in exchange for 2.5 million euros. This has sparked a political debate about whether the state should purchase information that has been gathered illegally. The Dutch Christian Democrats have fewer qualms in such a case, the blog De Dagelijkse Standaard writes: "The social democratic private-sphere haters from the SPD are in favour, of course. The governing CDU [Christian Democratic Party], meanwhile, is against it. The CDU does not fundamentally oppose this violation of the private sphere, however. It is simply concerned about the fact that the data is stolen. In the past this was not a problem, so even that is progress. The German Christian Democrats have gained some sense of decency. Certainly more than their Dutch brothers have."

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