Under certain circumstances, bribery was legal in Germany up until 2002.
That isn’t the weirdest part. Bribes were also tax-deductible, according to a 1995 Businessweek editorial. It was a rarely used rule, says Businessweek-- you had to name the parties involved. There were also certain stipulations, including: “deductions for bribes were not allowed if either the briber or the recipient had been subject to criminal penalties or criminal proceedings which were discontinued on the basis of a discretionary decision by the prosecution” according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Businessweek recommended the country end this practice (as it added 20 to 30 percent to public contracts) but it took Germany until 1999 to end tax deductions for bribery altogether.
