Taxpayers’ data protection and involvement of private third parties in the taxation process: risks of distrust and regulatory failure

Under the banner of the need for greater transparency in the relationship between tax authorities and taxpayers, the EU Legislator is adopting new measures to collect and exchange new sources of taxpayers’ data among tax authorities of different Member States by involving private third parties (such as intermediaries and plat-forms) and benefitting from the information and communication technologies. The public interest objectives pursued are undoubtedly legitimate. However, as it also appears from some recent judgments of the CJEU, several legal challenges are likely to emerge from these measures adopted to tackle tax fraud and address the ongoing “permanent” economic crisis. To the main end of this research, these measures (i.e. Directives on Administrative Cooperation, especially considering DAC 6, 7, and 8) perpetrate a significant interference in taxpayers’ private lives. It is, therefore, essential to balance their use with the need to protect taxpayers’ personal data in compli-ance with the GDPR. Relying on classic legal research (law interpretation, legal literature study, and case law review), the aim of this paper is to explain why it is important to highlight the “centripetal force” that the protection of taxpayers’ data should have. More in detail, this paper aims to analyse the crucial role the principles set out in the GDPR shall play, as a starting point to build a more coherent legal framework in the new anti-tax evasion context. This would be a fundamental step to ensure a trustworthy environment and avoid risks of regulatory failure, both at national and European levels. Indeed, the regulatory failure might lead to counter-productive results deriving from a lack of trust in the governments’ activities in collecting taxpayers’ data and resulting in a foreseeable increase in litigation, longer waiting times, and increasing costs for both private and public parties.