• Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Tax returns in US should be public to anyone and everyone, like they are in many countries.

      • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          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.

            • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              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?

              • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                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.

                • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  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!

      • solstice@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.