Pubblicazione di dati fiscali e diritto al rispetto della vita privata

With the digitalization of the tax administration and the large availability of personal data, a growing tension between the general interest to raise revenues and the individual’s right to private life can be observed. This study addresses the publication by the Revenue agencies of taxpayers’ personal data (e.g. lists of tax defaulters or details from tax returns and audit notices) as a reputational and transparency tool, supposed to trigger mutual social control on the fair distribution of the tax burden and to shed light on the effectiveness and frequency of tax audits. Following the recent ECtHR judgment “L.B. v. Hungary”, the proportionality of “name and shame” policies is questioned in both a domestic and comparative dimension. In this respect, the analysis takes into account the risk that taxpayers’ personal data disclosed on the Internet by tax authorities may be reused, for private purposes, in potentially harmful profiling activities. The essay reviews the existing forms of disclosure and argues that modern tax systems seem unlikely to benefit from some of them, as more refined tools to audit, collect revenues and punish tax evaders are available.