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FINCoffeeDaddy OP t1_j14tm14 wrote

Reply to comment by lowertownn in Court ruling: High earners can't prevent media accessing their tax data. by FINCoffeeDaddy

In Finland, you can just ask anyone's tax data, it is open information. But those who make money a lot. They are trying to hide their incomes from public.

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kiklion t1_j1517pn wrote

> https://www.vero.fi/en/About-us/finnish-tax-administration/data-security-and-information-access/public-information-on-taxes/public-information-on-individual-income-taxes/

I only read the above link, but it seems like there are a lot of hoops to go through to get the data. If the data should be public, it should be easier to access than having to go into a place in person and write down the data. But maybe I’m wrong, because I saw articles indicating that the government publicly releases a list of all the incomes anyway. Not the media.

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DecentChanceOfLousy t1_j15vosp wrote

Friction in bureaucratic processes is sometimes a useful property. If there's a figure of public interest, requiring a human in the loop, requiring some forms to be filled out, requiring a justification, etc. may take a while, but it eventually gets through. Those same steps prevent Bob the Nosey Asshole from requesting the income of everyone on his block just because he wants to know, and it also (hopefully) prevents someone's stalker from requesting their income info.

To some extent, it's like Proof-Of-Work (for emails or similar systems, not necessarily cryptocurrency). Requiring the sender/requester to do some work lets legitimate users through with a minor inconvenience, but absolutely buries bad actors and spammers with the work required.

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Wrote_it2 t1_j1744i5 wrote

Why are you ok with Bob the Nosey asshole journalist getting the tax data of the wealthy neighbor but not Bob the Nosey Asshole who lives next door getting your tax data?

Seems like it would kind of suck to be wealthy enough that every one in the Nosey Asshole family now gets to be an annoyance to you…

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Throwaway_7451 t1_j1781yk wrote

Because this is a civilized Nordic country we're talking about that puts the welfare of the many above that of the few and if the rich don't like it they can cry into their handkerchiefs made of money.

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DecentChanceOfLousy t1_j1784sq wrote

Oh no, the poor public figures so wealthy that their personal finances are relevant to the general public! It must be so hard.

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