Court case 0856/20.0BELRA – Court Ruling (Portugal, 2021)
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A Portuguese court ruled that the Tax Office was right to refuse a request for a neighbor's tax number, saying it is protected personal data. This decision highlights the importance of privacy even for information some might think should be public.
What happened
The Portuguese Tax Office refused to provide a citizen with a neighbor's National Tax Number (NIF), citing privacy laws.
Who was affected
A citizen who wanted the tax number to verify property boundaries was affected by the refusal.
What the authority found
The court decided that the tax number is personal data and not publicly available, aligning with stricter privacy protections.
Why this matters
This case emphasizes that even seemingly public information like tax numbers is protected under privacy laws. Small businesses and individuals should be cautious about assuming certain data can be freely accessed.
GDPR Articles Cited
National Law Articles
A citizen requested that the Tax Office provided her/him with the National Tax Number (NIF) of the owner of a neighbouring building and land, so as to request a check on the exact boundaries of the lands owned by both. The Tax Office, alleging Article 68 of the National Tax Law and the Data Protection Act, refused the request. The petitioner considered that the NIF of the owner of a building does not fall under the definition of what constitutes data that is protected by tax secrecy, as such data should be publicly available. Does the tax number of the owner of a building constitute personal data or data that should be publicly available? The appeal concerns the decision of the Administrative Court of Leiria, which dismissed the request for information made to the Portuguese Tax Office to provide the Portuguese National Tax Number (NIF) of an alleged neighbour, in order to contact this third party for purposes of checking the boundaries of an allegedly adjacent land. Before, it had been solidly anchored in the Portuguese jurisprudence a flexible approach to the duty of confidentiality and the protection of taxpayer data, with the Courts generally accepting that the NIF was not part of the sphere of intimacy in private life, and so, not personal data, but considered as publicly available data on taxpayers. In fact, it was the general understanding that publicly available personal data could be revealed, which encompassed public data or personal data contained in an official public document, as is the case, for example, with the NIF, as well as fiscal data that does not reflect or denounce the tax status of taxpayers. However, with Decree-Law no. 14/2013, of 28 January, the legislator started to adopt a much more rigid position regarding this information, with the new Law reflecting an increasing concern with the protection and treatment of individual data. This Decree modified the Portuguese General Tax Law (Lei Geral Tributária, or LGT) and added a new excepti
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Court case 0856/20.0BELRA in PT
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case 0856/20.0BELRA - Portugal (2021). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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