Friday,
May 02, 2008
Italy Posts Individual’s Income
Details on Web - For 24 Hours
The
ANNOTICO Report
There has been outrage in
BBC
NEWS
Thursday, 1 May 2008
The tax authority's website was inundated by people curious to know how much their neighbours, celebrities or sports stars were making.
The Italian treasury suspended the website after a formal complaint from the country's privacy watchdog.
The information was put on the site with no warning for nearly 24 hours.
Sour grapes?
The release of the information was one of the
last acts of the outgoing centre-left government and has shocked many tax-shy
Italians, says the BBC's Mark Duff in
But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.
The finance ministry described the move as a bid to improve transparency.
Deputy Economic Minister Vincenzo Visco said he could not understand what all the fuss was about.
"I can't understand what the problem
is," he is quoted as telling
"This already exists all around the world, you just have to watch any American soap to see that. We had the system ready by January but we delayed publication to avoid arguments during the election campaign."
But critics condemned it as an outrageous breach of privacy.
The timing of the move, just days before the current administration hands over to incoming Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was intriguing too, says our correspondent.
The outgoing government came to power promising to tackle Italians' notoriously lax approach to paying tax.
According to an Italian government report from 2007, the amount of unpaid tax in the country is equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product.
Some skeptics have seen the move as just end of term sour grapes, our correspondent adds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7376608.stm
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