Data Protection And Taxpayers Rights Challenges Created By Automatic Exchange Of Information

With the automatic exchange of information on tax matters (AEOI) developing into the new international standard, large quantities of information have been or will be subject to cross-border transfer. As a result, data play a significant role in the mechanism. Although the European Union is equipped with various legal sources in data protection, guarantees provided to taxpayers in AEOI legal instruments need to be further developed in order to be consistent with those provided by data protection rules in the European Union. This article analyses taxpayers' right to data protection by studying the interrelationships between rules in EU Directives regarding administrative administration and those regarding data protection. Moreover, relevant Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law is discussed in light of the afore-mentioned rules, highlighting the insufficiencies of prevailing AEOI legislation in ensuring proportionality and taxpayer protection in third countries. Finally, the newly adopted General Data Protection Regulation is assessed.

The goal of this contribution is to address the complex relationship between taxation law and the protection of taxpayers' data, primarily from the perspective of EU data protection law and in connection with mechanisms of exchange of information. This article points out at the outset that the legislation protecting personal data in tax matters at EU level is still rather fragmented, and that the body of jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights has not yet fully developed specific guidance, especially as regards the compatibility of automatic exchange of information with the right to the protection of personal data. In light of this, the research takes as a reference point the case law on the right to the protection of personal data in matters not related to taxation, with a view to assessing whether useful indications and principles could be transposed to the field of taxation. In addition, the analysis offers some insights into (i) the available safeguards in the hands of taxpayers during the processing of their personal data by tax authorities; and (ii) the consequences of the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation for Directive 2011/16/EU on exchange of information in tax matters, and for international agreements based on the FATCA and CRS frameworks.Full-text Paper.

The goal of this contribution is to address the complex relationship between taxation law and the protection of taxpayers' data, primarily from the perspective of EU data protection law and in connection with mechanisms of exchange of information. This article points out at the outset that the legislation protecting personal data in tax matters at EU level is still rather fragmented, and that the body of jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights has not yet fully developed specific guidance, especially as regards the compatibility of automatic exchange of information with the right to the protection of personal data. In light of this, the research takes as a reference point the case law on the right to the protection of personal data in matters not related to taxation, with a view to assessing whether useful indications and principles could be transposed to the field of taxation. In addition, the analysis offers some insights into (i) the available safeguards in the hands of taxpayers during the processing of their personal data by tax authorities; and (ii) the consequences of the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation for Directive 2011/16/EU on exchange of information in tax matters, and for international agreements based on the FATCA and CRS frameworks.

The introduction of international automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) represents a significant leap forward in combatting tax fraud and avoidance. Meanwhile, data protection legislation is developing rapidly to take into account the latest progress in information technology and more rights are being granted to data subjects. The aim of this article is to determine the extent to which data protection provisions may impact the AEOI and identify a minimum common standard of taxpayer rights from a data protection perspective.

This report is the ninth edition of the OECD's Tax Administration Series. It provides internationally comparative data on aspects of tax systems and their administration in 59 advanced and emerging economies.

This publication contains the following four parts: A model Competent Authority Agreement (CAA) for the automatic exchange of CRS information; the Common Reporting Standard; the Commentaries on the CAA and the CRS; and the CRS XML Schema User Guide.

This timely book provides a holistic analysis of the exchange of information procedures for tax purposes within the EU from an administrative law and tax law perspective. It explores how procedural and substantive taxpayers’ rights are affected by exchange of information processes, and rigorously examines the effectiveness of the current legal framework.

In the last 10 years, governments have initiated several reforms to automatically exchange bulk taxpayer information with other governments (mainly via the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the common reporting standard, and country-by-country reporting). This enhanced sharing of tax information has been encouraged both by technological change, including digitization, big data, and data analytics; and by political trends, including governments' efforts to reduce offshore tax evasion and aggressive international tax avoidance. In some cases, however, legal protections for taxpayer privacy and other interests are insufficiently robust for this emerging international sharing framework. Conceptually, taxpayers should be seen as "data subjects" whose rights are proactively protected by data protection laws and policies, including fair information practices. An optimal regime, which would balance the interests of taxpayers against those of tax authorities, should include a multilateral taxpayer bill of rights, a cross-border withholding tax that could be imposed in lieu of information exchange, and a global financial registry that would allow governments to identify the beneficial owners of business and legal entities.

Tax administration improvements have contributed significantly to a doubling of China’s tax-to-GDP ratio and the substantial reduction in taxpayers’ compliance costs since the mid-1990s. This paper describes the key features of China’s tax administration and their evolution over the last 20 years. It also identifes emerging challenges to the tax system and areas where further tax administration improvements are needed to sustain tax revenue and reduce taxpayers’ compliance costs in the future.