The Finnish government wants to give tax authorities more power to access citizens' financial data. A new proposal would allow the Tax Administration to make broader information requests about taxpayers.
Financial sector organization Finanssiala expressed concerns about privacy implications. The group worries about potential mass surveillance of Finnish bank accounts.
Data Protection Ombudsman Anu Talus identified serious issues with the government's plan. She said the proposal would enable very wide information requests without proper criteria.
Talus explained the proposal lacks legal certainty. It mainly creates certainty that officials can make untargeted requests, she noted, but not what kind of requests are acceptable.
People wouldn't know if their data was collected under the new rules. The necessity assessment would remain entirely with authorities, and individuals couldn't even ask if they were being monitored.
In a proper rule-of-law state, people have the right to know what measures authorities are taking against them, Talus stated. She called the broad data collection concerning since it could affect many Finns.
The tax authority could also share collected data with other government agencies. While the text suggests data couldn't be transferred directly, Talus said this leaves room for interpretation.
Finanssiala presented a scenario where gift taxation could be declared a risk area. The Tax Administration could then request all Finnish banks to provide all customer transaction data as mass data for analysis.
This would allow checking if any citizen donated over €7,500 to relatives within three years.
The Ministry of Finance dismissed this scenario as impossible under the proposed rules. Officials said information requests must be justified and precisely targeted toward necessary tax control data.
A ministry specialist stated that requesting all bank customers' transactions wouldn't meet the targeting requirement. Therefore, the proposed provision wouldn't allow such actions.
The background involves Supreme Administrative Court rulings that broad, untargeted requests don't meet data protection requirements.
The government claims the proposal would align comparison data checks with general data protection regulation requirements.
The law expanding tax authorities' data access is scheduled to take effect at the start of next year. It still requires parliamentary approval.
This represents a significant expansion of state surveillance powers that could affect most Finnish adults. The debate highlights the tension between tax collection efficiency and fundamental privacy rights in the digital age.