We have the same thing in Finland. Only you can't access the info easily online, you have to go to the tax office and use their terminal. But there you can stalk your neighbors and friends anonymously.
Although newspapers publish lists of all people earning 150k/year and make a big thing about the income of celebrities.
What I haven't understood is if tax records are public why aren't social security payments etc. also public? So you could see who possibly "games" the system in benefits?
I mean if the point of public tax data is to be "open" (=have everybody snitching for the government).
Because there might be social stigma around your medical condition, the fact that you've ever been homeless, that you don't have custody over your children and aren't receiving benefits or any number of things.
You earn your pay check, receiving one means that you're valued. Maybe not as valued as someone else, but valued none the less. Benefits are received because you need them, sometimes because you've been through hardships.
I have no problem with finding people who game the system, but I don't think the public are the ones who should do that job.
Well just publish a lump sum. Taxes paid: x €, benefits received: y €. Where's the problem with that? Medical costs could be excluded (medical care is practically "free" here ie. paid by taxes).
I wasn't talking about medical costs, I'm talking about benefits received while you're sick. This article is about Norway, and just like in every other Scandinavian country, after a while the state pays for their medical leave. That's a benefit, wether or not the actual cost of treatment was paid by the state or not.
The problem with doing that is, again, the social stigma. Why did you receive 3 times the normal average of benefits for a period? Were you a fuck up? It's comparable to the mug-shot websites in the US; if an employer sees you on that site, they don't care if you were ever indicted, what the crime was, if the officer was found to be acting incorrectly; you just had the bar raised for you, and this sucks if you were innocent because then there really is no reason. I can see the same thing happening if someone can see your unusual benefits, regardless of wether you deserved them or not.
That's how it was in Norway previously. The newspapers used to get the top of the local list and publish across several pages when they were made available. When online news became popular in the early 2000s they just got the whole dataset and published a searchable version online. This was banned a few years ago, and search is only available on the government website where it will notify whoever you search for that you have searched for them ...
What's the "terminal" of which you speak? Last time I asked about this (years ago) there was an online service and you could pay about 10e to find out.
Edit: if you are going to downvote could you please tell me which part of my comment is factually incorrect? Genuinely curious. How do you think laws are enforced? This is not a controversial fact, it is admitted by both leftists and right-wing politicians, economists and philosophers. Thanks :)
> This is great, salaries shouldn't be secret!
Why? Do you realize that laws are enforced by the use of government force and sending cops with guns to your house if you don't comply? What this does is basically pointing guns at people and ordering them "tell me your salary or I will shoot you". How is that in any way a moral thing to do?
Although newspapers publish lists of all people earning 150k/year and make a big thing about the income of celebrities.
What I haven't understood is if tax records are public why aren't social security payments etc. also public? So you could see who possibly "games" the system in benefits?
I mean if the point of public tax data is to be "open" (=have everybody snitching for the government).