Privacy on tax matters

Privacy

The Revenue must observe privacy with respect to the taxpayers' information. That is to say: every taxpayer's information must be kept secret and every taxpayer has the right to access to the information to check if it is correctly kept. The authorities governing these two rights are Section 4 of Inland Revenue Ordinance and Code on Access to information.

Official Secrecy

All staff of Inland Revenue Department have to take a solemn oath of secrecy under the provisions of section 4 of Inland Revenue Ordinance. Breaking the oath is a criminal offence and it may render the staff liable to criminal prosecution and internal disciplinary action.

Section 4 is to promote full disclosure of information that is necessary for the Revenue to assess tax correctly.