On May 5, the idea of bargain shopping on eBay took a new twist. Item 100237099149 went up for sale for the sum of $75 but the item was actually quite priceless. You see, what appeared to be just another auction item was actually a CD containing the “income-tax returns for 2005 of the entire Italian people.”
That’s not a typo.
And it wasn’t a joke.
A few days earlier, Italian tax authorities had inexplicably put all 38.5 million Italian personal income tax records from 2005 online. The information was eventually deleted but before that happened, the data had already been re-posted to other sites and downloaded.
How could this happen? It may not have been an accident. Some in Italy believe that it was a purposeful act by Romano Prodi’s government, who had prior to losing the general election, been a vocal critic of tax evasion. Interestingly, the timing of the release of the tax records came just after Silvio Berlusconi took office though the release was approved in March.
Even more telling, the deputy finance minister, Vincenzo Visco, said the online publication promoted “transparency and democracy.” This may seem odd, but in Italy, personal income tax returns have been matters of public record and are on display in local town and city halls for a period of one year – unlike here in the US where we consider the information private. However, the Italian data-protection authority believes that making the information available on the internet is very different from making them available in paper form. An investigation is under way to determine whether the release online was a violation of existing law. Additionally, a consumer association is seeking compensation for taxpayers worth approximately $1000 per taxpayer.
What do you think? What would be appropriate compensation for making your tax information available online – taking into consideration that the information was already made public by law?
(Hat Tip: one of my husband’s favorite news magazines, The Economist, which I won’t admit to reading at the house (long story) but I do find it enjoyable…)
That is because Italians don’t have social security like Americans do. That’s why it can be public and can’t really be considered as “private” unlike you will not find in Italy Criminal Record of somebody online or P.Departments etc. unless you have such authority unlike in USA you can find everything about anyone so to say.
Awesome post TAX GIRL 🙂
Ciao..
Whats your gripe with ‘The Economist’?