Tax official fined for snooping out unlawful information
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A female tax official has been fined for unlawful retrieval of personal information concerning four of her acquaintances. On Tuesday the Jyväskylä District Court found the official guilty of a violation of her office and a registrar offence.
The woman, who works in a tax office in Central Finland, had accessed the personal information of four individuals in the tax authority’s data system, even though the cases were not connected to her official duties. She admitted having peeked at the information for personal reasons.
The offences, which took place in 2005-2006 came to light in connection with the National Board of Taxation's own internal investigation.
The court ordered the official to pay 30 day-fines, which in her case translated to EUR 600.
Finnish tax details are a matter of public record insofaras the amount of taxes paid by any individual can be accessed from the tax office, and each year as we have seen only recently, newspapers publish the income data of the rich and famous and the simply rich, but such prying into personal information has its limits.
Helsingin Sanomat
