Tax authorities make a mistake with the risk analysis system
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Wouter Hoeffnagel - March 07, 2025
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Secretary of State: 'Tax authorities made a mistake with the risk analysis system'
For twenty years, the Dutch tax authorities used a risk analysis system that did not comply with privacy legislation. The Risk Analysis Model (RAM) was decommissioned shortly before the introduction of the AVG, but was already found to be in violation of the previous privacy law. In addition, data was kept longer than allowed.
This is what State Secretary Tjebbe van Oostenbruggen of Taxation, Tax Administration and Customs writes in a letter to the House of Representatives. The system dates back to 1998 and is a database that the tax authorities use to detect fraud. The cabinet investigated whether RAM is in violation of legislation, which indeed appears to be the case.
“Does not comply with applicable legal requirements”
“Based on KPMG's investigation, I conclude that the use of RAM did not meet the (legal) requirements applicable at the time in terms of privacy legislation, security regulations and the Archives Act. I note that the tax authorities should not and should not have used RAM and I regret that. The Data Protection Authority (AP) has indicated that it will further investigate RAM. In addition, the tax authorities are investigating whether the use of RAM data in specific situations may have led to a violation of fundamental rights,” writes the Secretary of State.
“Citizens and companies must be able to be sure that the tax authorities work in accordance with laws and regulations, including the general principles of good administration, and that they can trust the tax authorities. From 2018, improvements have been made that lead to a better balance between supervision and data protection. Raising awareness and introducing safeguards, among other things, have led to better dealing with data protection and security. Today's tax authorities therefore function differently than the tax authorities of the past. Supervision is still being carried out and this remains a data-intensive task, but with the necessary safeguards. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to do, as evidenced by the AP's recent advice.”
The full letter is here to find.
About Wouter Hoeffnagel
Wouter Hoeffnagel is Online Content Manager at Dutch IT Media
He is an expert in the field of ICT and has been writing about this for years in the form of news reports and insightful articles.
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State Secretary Tjebbe van Oostenbrugge: Tax authorities should not have used RAM
For years, the tax authorities violated citizens' privacy with the self-built RAM (Risk Analysis Model) computer system. Through this system, the tax authorities were able to combine people's sensitive data and share them with other government services, according to research by KPMG. State Secretary Van Oostenbruggen (Tax Administration, NSC) now finds that this was in violation of privacy legislation. In violation of privacy legislation, Van Oostenbruggen writes this in a letter to the House of Representatives. RAM did not meet the legal privacy, archiving and security requirements, according to the KPMG investigation. “I note that the tax authorities should not and should not have used RAM and I regret that,” says the Secretary of State. The investigation was launched after NRC revealed the large-scale use of RAM.
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