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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Tax returns in US should be public to anyone and everyone, like they are in many countries.
Are they? Where? It seems odd to me that a government would disclose how much everybody makes.
Here in Finland it is public. Reality is that nobody actually cares how much normal people make.
If you want to know how much your CEO or boss pockets money, why is it a bad thing. It is good for income equality.
It's one thing to not be "confidential" and another to be made "public" though. I wouldn't want the government disclosing my info publicly.
Why would anyone be interested in your income and wealth?
I dunno - I don't know anything about Finnish taxes but In the US there can be personal information beyond just income. Like deductions for children, loans, child support, marriage status, etc.
It's a question of privacy. Like how does this not violate the GDPR?
GDPR cannot override Finnish law (or any EU nations law). And Finnish law states that tax info is public.
Included infos are:
Person's name, year of birth, and province
Income and capital income taxed in state taxation
Income taxed in municipal taxation
Income tax
Municipal tax
Total amount of taxed and charged fees
Total amount of prepayments
Amount to be paid or refunded in tax collection, i.e., remaining tax or tax refund
Edit: maybe wrote poorly, GDPR on course override any Finnish privacy laws, but GDPR has exceptions if local nations law has requirements for data, i.e. police, security, military and government.
Thanks - that's very interesting! I'm still not sold on the idea as I believe it violates the same provisions that I think are good in the GDPR (for which they seem to have carved out an exception). But it's an interesting idea. I wonder if it has had the intended effect of income equality (verified through studies)?
Generally speaking I think people are "aware" that rich people make obscene amounts of money. So telling them "how much" doesn't seem like it would be worth the privacy violations. Though from what you've listed it seems like Finnish tax information may not leak as much information as a US return does.
Something to consider... Thanks again!
I read once that maybe Sweden or Norway has publicly available tax returns. BUT, the person whose return you look at gets notified when you view it, so you can't just go around subtly snooping on your friends and neighbors without being noticed. Idk if that's true though.