Thanks everyone for answering the question. What should be our position? Should the tax data be made public? What are the pros and cons? Zahid
From: Venkatesh Nayak Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 3:05 AM To: 'Francesca' ; 'Toby Mendel' Cc: 'FOI Advocates' Subject: Re: [foianet] Parliamentarians Tax Data Dear all, Perhaps Norway is the only country which allowed public disclosure of taxpayer data for a month in October. Do they still do it? Thanks Venkat From: foianet-boun...@lists.foiadvocates.info [mailto:foianet-boun...@lists.foiadvocates.info] On Behalf Of Francesca Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 3:26 PM To: Toby Mendel Cc: FOI Advocates Subject: Re: [foianet] Parliamentarians Tax Data Hello Toby, Zahid and everyone, What happened is quickly said, alas: the Italian Data Protection Agency stepped in 24 hours after the online publication of the data, following a flurry of protests, and orderes their removal, arguing it was a breach of privacy :-/ Best regards, Francesca -- Francesca Fanucci Lawyer - Consultant on freedom of expression Senior Associate at Free Expression Associates (www.foeassociates.com) London, UK Email: franf...@gmail.com Skype account: franfanu Fax: 0044 7092872411 Linkedin profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/francescafanucci "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" -- (George Orwell) On 13 Dec 2012, at 08:19, Toby Mendel <t...@law-democracy.org> wrote: Same in Canada. And Italy, although apparently the Min. of Finance released all of the tax records one year in a Rambo move towards openness which cause a lot of furore, although I am not sure what happened. Toby ___________________________________ Toby Mendel Executive Director Centre for Law and Democracy t...@law-democracy.org Tel: +1 902 431-3688 Fax: +1 902 431-3689 www.law-democracy.org -- Francesca Fanucci Lawyer - Consultant on freedom of expression Senior Associate at Free Expression Associates (www.foeassociates.com) London, UK Email: franf...@gmail.com Skype account: franfanu Fax: 0044 7092872411 Linkedin profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/francescafanucci "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" -- (George Orwell) On 13 Dec 2012, at 08:19, Toby Mendel <t...@law-democracy.org> wrote: Same in Canada. And Italy, although apparently the Min. of Finance released all of the tax records one year in a Rambo move towards openness which cause a lot of furore, although I am not sure what happened. Toby ___________________________________ Toby Mendel Executive Director Centre for Law and Democracy t...@law-democracy.org Tel: +1 902 431-3688 Fax: +1 902 431-3689 www.law-democracy.org On 13 Dec 2012, at 03:53, Alexander Kashumov wrote: Hi Zahid, In Bulgaria tax data of both citizens and officials (including parliamentarians) are not public. Only data of income and assets of high ranking officials are public, but tax data definitely not. As far as I know, though I might be wrong, everywhere in Europe is the same with the exception of Sweden and Norway (Denmark left that small community on that matter few years ago). In Norway I heard there is debate to stop this openness as well. But let other countries speak about their situation themselves! I am also curious to know whether there are new/other developments. Best regards, Alexander Alexander Kashumov, attorney-at-law Head of Legal Team Access to Information Programme 76 Vassil Levski Blvd. Apt.3 1142 Sofia, Bulgaria + 3592 9885062; 9867709 E-mail: kashu...@aip-bg.org На 2012-12-13 22:01, Zahid Abdullah написа: Hi, I wonder in how many countries tax data is regarded as public data? In Pakistan, tax data is not regarded as public data. CPDI and CRIP jointly carried out studied titled ‘Representation without Taxation’ which was launched yesterday and which has been largely carried out by local and international newspapers. It was also topic of different evening television talk shows here. Following is the link of the story Minister, Lawmakers evading tax: Study http://dawn.com/2012/12/13/ministers-lawmakers-evading-tax-study/ Zahid Abdullah Program Manager Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) House No. 409-B, Main Nazim-ud-Din Road, F-11/1, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone:+92 51 2108287 (Ext.102), Fax:+92 51 2101594, Cell:+92 333 5214748 email: za...@cpdi-pakistan.org, website: www.cpdi-pakistan.org; skype: zahidisd