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Then_Campaign7264 t1_j13erlx wrote

On a lighter note, I love when reporters include little tidbits like this:

“This autumn's list saw a 'typo' inaccurately declare a man to be Finland's biggest earner. The man is the founder of a firm called Goofy Unicorn, who said that a "brain fart" made him file fictitious cryptocurrency earnings into a tax form.”

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Motobugs t1_j13eue1 wrote

So, no privacy for you.

−69

tetoffens t1_j13ie45 wrote

The guy put in that he made 133.7 Euros and says he founded a company called 1337 Software, which is stated to have 133,700 shares. I think the guy is just genuinely a moron trying to make an out of date leet joke. Whether it was an inside joke or one he wanted people to catch for self promotion reasons, unsure.

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Latexi95 t1_j141pd7 wrote

In this case he would have had to pay huge extra taxes if that "typo" wasn't corrected, so clearly not attempt to gain tax benefit.

Usually point of tax fraud is to reduce taxable income, not increase it. ;)

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Ringlovo t1_j14sply wrote

This news is from Finland, but as an American, I absolutely agree.

No one - rich, poor, or otherwise - should have thier tax returns be made publicly accessible.

−27

lowertownn t1_j14t69z wrote

How does the media get to access tax data? Do they just write a letter asking for the data or something? This doesn't sound correct, or anyone could just ask for anyone's tax data?

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Tweetydabirdie t1_j14ybwd wrote

Why exactly is that? In Sweden the same a thing applies as in Finland. Its public records. For everyone.

I’m fairly certain it curbs the most excessive cheating by default that way.

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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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Ringlovo t1_j158z1m wrote

In America we have the right to privacy. What you make, donate to charity, pay in taxes, how many deductions you apply for, is - frankly - no one's business but you and the government.

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maethoriell t1_j15jgf8 wrote

So how rich are all the metal bands? Way less or way .ore than expected?

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PenguinSunday t1_j15ksk2 wrote

We're the land of Facebook and Twitter, the country that is using social media to track down women getting abortions. The fact that you think we have a right to privacy here is hilarious.

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jschubart t1_j15op67 wrote

The government...which is a public institution. How you spend your money can be private but it is a little ridiculous to say that what you give to the government should remain private.

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PenguinSunday t1_j15siss wrote

Someone wasn't paying attention during the "Cambridge Analytica" debacle. It's not a question of "if" anymore. Period-tracking apps have been outed selling womens' cycle information. Google also tracks you, as does every other provider and appmaker. I haven't had anything but a reddit account for almost a decade now. They also track, but I don't want to quit the internet entirely.

Weird how it's suddenly about their rights to push their product into my face now instead of my right to privacy you were claiming I had earlier.

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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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Potatisk t1_j15z56z wrote

...in this very specific instance. And yet comparing others, it's abusmal. Like my favourite pet peeve of employer having rights to your communications/working with very little notice. We don't remove that privacy in Finland.

And based on experience there's comments on "well, they should have it" or whatever... is that so dissimilar?

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MustLoveAllCats t1_j16btqw wrote

America is set up that way to facilitate oppression of the working class, nothing more. It's not about privacy, it's about making sure you don't know how hard you're getting the shaft compared to the guy you're working with, the guy you're working for, etc., including the fact that many of them are exploiting the system, leeching off your taxes and not paying their fair share.

The brainwashing is real though, that you believe it's about privacy.

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jschubart t1_j16k66l wrote

I doubt many would be scrutinizing my standard deduction...

That scrutiny did not seem to be an issue at all in other countries. Why the fuck would it be an issue here?

0

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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SalSimNS2 t1_j176616 wrote

> high earners

I prefer the terms "made" or "salaried" or "received" a lot of money. I'm not really certain it was "earned" in most cases.

−2

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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Raaka-Kake t1_j181kbc wrote

You lose some privacy in tax info, you win some in GDPR where some petulant millionaire can’t build a private ID database to stop you from attending events with bullshit excuses.

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