This article addresses data protection including the automatic processing of personal and business data as a result of the flows of information and the digital trade. Nowadays, data is being... Show moreThis article addresses data protection including the automatic processing of personal and business data as a result of the flows of information and the digital trade. Nowadays, data is being collected, exchanged and used in small or large amounts by governments, international organizations and companies for medical, educational, social, industrial and tax purposes amongst others. The increasingly collection, exchange and use of data by companies and governments, calls for attention to the legal protection in the collection, exchange, use, monitoring and processing of this data. Furthermore, the use of big data also raises questions regarding the protection of privacy and also the safeguards in place for the data controllers among others. The main question of this article is are the instruments in the era of digital trade, internet governance and taxation sufficient to guarantee the privacy and data protection of individuals and business? In order to answer this question, this article will address the challenges and the instruments for the protection of the use of data and big data in three areas: trade and internet governance and taxation. Show less
The overall aim of this article is to analyse the taxpayers’ rights in relation to the emerging standard of transparency with specific reference to Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and Uruguay.... Show moreThe overall aim of this article is to analyse the taxpayers’ rights in relation to the emerging standard of transparency with specific reference to Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and Uruguay. Exchange of information between tax authorities is increasing rapidly all around the world. This global development is largely the result of the introduction of the standard of transparency by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) with the political mandate of the G20 and more recently, in 2013, the introduction of the global standard of automatic exchange of information. Governments have agreed that exchange of information is necessary to prevent tax evasion and to tackle tax avoidance including aggressive tax planning. All surveyed countries have accepted the standard of transparency including the standard of automatic exchange of information. Furthermore, it is evident that the development of such standards appears to have taken place in a coordinated manner, led mainly by international organizations comprising governmental officials.This article has first provided a comparative overview of the rules that Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and Uruguay have introduced to protect the taxpayers’ rights in the exchange of information process being the right to access to public information, the right to confidentiality, the right to privacy, and the procedural rights (right to be informed, the right to be notified and right to object and appeal). Thereafter, this article has assessed whether the rules introduced by the surveyed countries to protect these rights are consistent with the fundamental taxpayers’ rights that belong to the rule of law of these countries and with the principles of good governance and fiscal transparency.The main conclusion is that the countries have introduced to some extent similar rules to protect the right to confidentiality, right to privacy and the procedural rights in the exchange of information. However, some differences may be found in the detail level of protection of confidentiality in South Africa and in respect of the procedural rights in Uruguay. One of the drawbacks of these rules is that the rules introduced by the surveyed countries do not ensure that the protection of the right to confidentiality and the right to privacy is effectively guaranteed. The results of the analysis show that these rules do not protect the taxpayer in case of breach of confidentiality or misuse of the information exchanged.This article argues that the differences among rules and the lack of protection for taxpayer information may hinder the effective protection of the taxpayer and the tax administration should guarantee the protection of the taxpayer rights as part of the rule of law. Therefore, this article provides in Section 4 three recommendations addressing the right to confidentiality, the right to privacy and the taxpayers’ procedural rights. These recommendations may be extended (as best practices) to other developing countries on a similar economic and legal scale. However, further research will be needed to see whether the conclusions of this article are also applicable to (other) developing countries. Show less
The overall aim of this article is to analyse the rights of corporations (mainly multinationals) when dealing with tax authorities in this new era of transparency and “fair share”. The article... Show moreThe overall aim of this article is to analyse the rights of corporations (mainly multinationals) when dealing with tax authorities in this new era of transparency and “fair share”. The article addresses two questions: First, what are the rights and obligations of corporations as taxpayers in these developments? Second, what should countries (including the tax authorities and judiciary thereof) do (i) to guarantee that the rules to implement exchange of information protect the confidentiality, privacy and participation of the taxpayer in the exchange and (ii) to guarantee that the rules to implement the BEPS Actions, as well as domestic and treaty anti-avoidance rules to tackle abusive and aggressive tax planning, are clear, easy to apply and reliable?This article will address the international instruments and domestic measures introduced to tackle tax evasion, harmful tax practices and abusive and aggressive tax planning (section 2.), and some problems in the application of these instruments and rules will be presented. Section 3. will first analyse the rights of a corporation to confidentiality and privacy, and the right to be notified, to be heard and to appeal against the exchange of information; the second part will analyse the rights of a corporation to certainty and transparency in terms of the availability, clarity, simplicity and reliability of tax rules. Finally, section. will provide some conclusions and recommendations. Show less
