Tax transparency does not mean publishing everyone’s tax file. Public institutions can report aggregate receipts, procedures, budgets and audit findings while protecting confidential taxpayer information.
Questions to ask of a published number
- Who produced the figure, and what authority does the source have?
- Is it an estimate, collection total, refund amount or final account?
- Which tax types, taxpayers and dates are included?
- Does the source explain revisions and methodology?
- Can the reader access the original report or table?
Privacy is part of trust
A person’s return, tax account or payment history can reveal sensitive financial information. Do not publish a taxpayer’s records, registration identifier or private correspondence without clear legal authority and a legitimate basis. The same care applies to small businesses where aggregate information could identify an individual owner.
What good reporting looks like
Good public-finance reporting identifies the issuing institution, links to its source, states the period, labels estimates and collections accurately, and avoids implying that aggregate data identifies individual contributors. If the underlying source is unclear, report that limitation rather than filling it with speculation.
This report summarizes public documents. Figures are attributed to their issuing organizations and are not independently audited by this publication.