May a tax office use financial transaction information it received on interest and dividend income to find a delinquent taxpayer's assets and collect tax by force?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the payment statements for interest or dividend income that a financial institution submitted, the record showing that the person named in them is a delinquent taxpayer, and the papers of any asset inquiry or compulsory collection step taken against that person, since the provision turns on who holds the information, what kind of information it is, and which purpose it is used for.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading grants the use broadly on all its conditions: the Commissioner of the National Tax Service, the head of a regional tax office, or the head of the competent tax office may use financial transaction information received under the income tax and corporate tax legislation, including payment statements for interest and dividend income, for both the asset inquiry of a delinquent taxpayer and the compulsory collection of the tax, notwithstanding the main clause of the confidentiality provision in the financial real-name transaction law.
Another reading marks the scope and what the provision does not say: the permission reaches information received under those two Acts and used for those two stated purposes, so financial information held on other bases is not covered, and because the provision only says such information 'may be used', it leaves open how far a delinquent taxpayer can have that information shown to them or to a court.
Your judgment
If compulsory collection rests on information the office used but never served on anyone, how could a self-represented delinquent taxpayer obtain a record of what was used?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to set out a duty to disclose the information used to the delinquent taxpayer, or if a court decision decides whether asset inquiry materials must be produced in a dispute over the collection.