Privacy vs Tax Revenue (Portugal)

Some Portuguese MPs want to publish citizens declaration of income on the Internet. They say that national tax revenues will increase, by reducing tax escapes. Other MPs, including from the same party, disagree, and some opinion makers already classify the intent as mere “voyeurism”.

One Reply to “Privacy vs Tax Revenue (Portugal)”

  1. This is really interesting and for myself, I am not particularly excited by this development. Transparency is replacing the expectation for privacy for reasons that you’ve stated here. Transparency per se is good, but there are some things that I want to keep private, and one of these are my earnings. In fact the practice of publishing citizens declaration of income on the Internet is done already in Sweden see http://virtualshadows.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/so-you-want-to-know-how-much-your-colleagues-earn/ (a post from 2009) and also in Norway although I have no reference to back this up.

    I am still confused as this conflicts with the EU Directive on Data Privacy, or does it? Can our declaration of income be classed as ‘sensitive’. I guess not, but still, it does enable us to be profiled and discriminated based on our earnings.

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