Taxpayers' Data Protection

Book excerpt: In this article, the author analyses whether existing international instruments - OECD, regional regulations - EU, and domestic data protection laws - Brazil, effectively safeguard taxpayers' rights to data protection, particularly in automatic exchange of information procedures.Ongoing developments in terms of internalization and digitalization of the economy have resulted in an ever-developing worldwide shift towards a data-driven socioeconomic model whereby personal data has become one of the most valuable assets. The tax environment has not gone unscathed. As relevant sources and users of data, governments are increasingly exploiting technologies in pursuit of greater revenue collection and tax audits for which many measures have been adopted internationally, regionally, and nationally to strengthen tax cooperation and enhance international tax exchange of information (EoI) among jurisdictions. A remarkable outcome is the new standard of automated processing and transfer of bulks of taxpayers' data that, albeit desired by tax administrations, inherently raises concerns over the risks of violation of data protection rights. In this article, the author analyses whether existing international instruments (OECD), regional regulations (EU), and domestic data protection laws (Brazil) effectively safeguard taxpayers' rights to data protection, particularly in (A)EoI procedures. Building upon the findings of this analysis, the author concludes that an adequate and satisfactory level of protection has not yet been implemented globally and proposes a temporary solution for the issue in the absence of specific instruments dealing with taxpayers' data protection in (A)EoI procedures.