I agree with the approach of Toby.
Basically according to the EU Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) taz
information falls under the definition of personal data as seen from the
following:
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive:
(a) 'personal data' shall mean any information relating to an identified or
identifiable natural person ('data subject'); an identifiable person is one who
can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an
identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical,
physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity;
This information refers to the persons' economic identity. This is valid only
for physical persons (unless national personal data protection legislation
expands to legal persons as well). The directive is a legal instrument which
bounds member contries to adopt national laws, roughly speaking,
Overcoming this protection is possible in cases of public interest. I don't
know however in how many national systems there is developed practice on such
cases. Two years ago Bulgarian courts accepted that tax information exemption
is not absolute and is subject to the overriding public interests test, but did
not specify any cases.
Sasho
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
----- Original Message -----
From: Toby Mendel
To: Zahid Abdullah
Cc: FOI Advocates
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: [foianet] Parliamentarians Tax Data
That you have to decide yourself :)
My view is that tax information is clearly private (in Canada, this can
include medical expenditures, sports expenditures, etc.) so you would need a
public interest argument to overcome it and that would probably have to be
limited to certain cases or classes of people (as with officials or senior
officials as Vanja was arguing).
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 21:13, Zahid Abdullah wrote:
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
