There’s a juicy little scandal unfolding in in Liechtenstein — whose national slogan might as well be “Why Pay Taxes?” According to several articles today, including this one in the Journal, a former employee of a Liechtenstein bank (apparently the nation’s largest bank, LGT) stole loads of data about wealthy clients who are using the country as an illegal tax shelter and sold the data to the German government for millions of dollars. Now the German tax authorities are making sweeps of the tony townhouses and villas of Munich, Hamburg and other locales, hunting rich Germans who may have ducked the tax man. The dragnet has already snagged Klaus Zumwinkle, the head of Deutsche Post (which owns DHL). More prosecutions are likely in the coming weeks, and the Journal article says the data has been offered to several other countries with potential tax dodgers, including the U.S. That Liechtenstein is a tax haven is no secret. What’s newsworthy is the number of high-profile rich people who will likely be charged, and the political fallout that’s likely to follow. Wealthy Germans have been pressing hard for the country to overhaul its “welfare state,” arguing that heavy taxes and social policies are restricting the country’s economy. Yet now the perception will be that the rich aren’t paying taxes, and are stashing undeclared cash in Liechtenstein. That will fuel arguments by Germany’s political left that Germany needs to focus on cracking down on wealthy tax evaders rather than cutting back on social programs. As a former U.S. ambassador to Germany says in this New York Times article, “In the U.S., we send people off to prison and say ‘good riddance,’ but it doesn’t actually shake people’s belief in the system. Here, it does.” The question, of course, is whether the list of names includes any wealthy Americans. And, in an election year filled with increasingly populist policy talk, whether the tax-avoiders become fodder in the emerging fight over raising taxes on the wealthy. Either way, it may be time for Liechtenstein to find a new slogan.