(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
To the unpleasant surprise of many Italians, for a few hours on 30 April 2008, the Italian government, through its Agenzia delle Entrate, published on the agency website, agenziaentrate.gov.it, the financial information filed by all Italian taxpayers.
Although operational only for a few hours, many people had the opportunity of seeing how much other people were earning, including celebrities. As Corriere della Sera daily newspaper puts it, the site was "a delicious opportunity to find out with a click how much your neighbour or colleague or, for gossip fans, celebrities earn".
The present centre-left government made public every citizen's declared taxable income as part of a crackdown on tax evasion. The action brought forth the quick attack and critical attitude of consumers, privacy advocates and politicians alike. The consumer group ADOC considered the action as "a clear violation of privacy law" as the tax return forms did not include any request of consent for data publishing, therefore, the appearance of the data on the Internet being illegal.
At the complaint of the Italian Data Protection Authority for violation of privacy, the Italian Treasury ordered the national tax office to close down the site which was providing full details of tax returns, including declared income and tax paid for 2005 but also names, addresses and birth dates.
The Deputy Finance Minister Vincenzo Visco said he did not see what the problem was: "It's all about transparency and democracy". Massimo Romano, head of the tax office,considered that the publication had been "in the public interest, in order to allow the free circulation of information in a framework of transparency" and he stated that the action had been in agreement with guidelines from the privacy watchdog. However, Francesco Pizzetti, the head of the Italian DPA, said that he had not been informed about this.
The opposition which won the elections last month accused Visco of having released the data as "an act of revenge". "It's a very strange thing to do on the last day before clearing off" said Guido Crosetto, a member of Berlusconi's party who also added: "Taxpayers need to pay less tax, not to know how much all the other Italians are paying."
"It's madness," was the comment of Beppe Grillo, a very well known Italian comic. In his opinion the government had "given criminals information about the income and address of taxpayers." He also added: "This is going to make paying taxes very dangerous. (...) It will be much safer and less risky to just evade taxes and pay the fine if you're caught."
Uproar in Italy after Web publishes earning levels (30.04.2008)
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL3079138220080430
Garante Decision on the online financial information (only in Italian,
2.05.2008)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/doc.jsp?ID=1510761
Fiscal data, what does the law say? (only in Italian, 5.05.2008)
http://punto-informatico.it/2273614/PI/Commenti/Dati-fiscali--cosa-dic...
Fury as tax officials post details of every Italian's salary on internet
(1.05.2008)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_...
Do the rich pay taxes? Italy tells all (2.05.2008)
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/05/02/Do_the_rich_pay_taxes_Italy_tell...