- The motion calls for cantonal tax data to be anonymized before it is transferred to the federal government in order to protect personal rights and tax confidentiality.
- Instead, the Federal Council wants to develop a formal legal basis and emphasizes data protection and data security, which is why the amendment to the ordinance was withdrawn.
Motion WAK NR (25.3024): No disclosure of tax data without anonymization
Submitted text
The Federal Council is instructed to amend its draft of the Federal Statistics Ordinance to ensure that tax data collected for statistical purposes is anonymized before it is transmitted to the federal government.
Minority
A minority (Bertschy, Amoos, Andrey, Bendahan, Grossen Jürg, Masshardt, Roth David, Ryser, Wermuth) requested that the motion be rejected.
Justification
The wording of this motion corresponds to that of the motion submitted by Councillor of States Fabio Regazzi on May 30, 2024 24.3507.
In the draft for a Ordinance on Federal Statistics, which was submitted for consultation in December 2023, the Federal Council plans to oblige the cantons to provide the Confederation with Tax data of natural persons in non-anonymized form to transmit.
The Federal Council’s explanatory report states on page 44 that the analysis applies to both natural persons and legal entities. Although both areas are of great interest for the statistics, it was decided to concentrate on the data of natural persons first. In other words: In a second step, tax data from companies must also be passed on to the federal government for statistical purposes in a non-anonymized form.
The data to be transmitted in non-anonymized form includes various information on the private, professional and economic situation. The draft stipulates that information on income, assets, deductions for medical expenses or political parties, professional expenses, church taxes, etc. must be transmitted. This is therefore personal data worthy of protection.
The non-anonymized transmission of tax data to the federal government would be contrary to the Relationship of trust between taxpayers and the cantonal tax administrations damage.
The consolidation of all tax data in non-anonymized form would entail a considerable risk, as the vulnerability to cyber attacks, which in turn would result in massive data outflows, would increase.
In the opinion of the Federal Council, the public interest in the production of statistics should be given greater weight than tax confidentiality. According to a legal opinion commissioned by the Direction générale de la fiscalité of the canton of Vaud from former federal judge Professor Peter Locher, tax secrecy is to be given greater weight than requirements in the area of statistics. In other words, the lifting of tax secrecy requires a formal legal basis.
Statement of the Federal Council of 2.4.2025
The Federal Council recognizes the repeatedly expressed concern for a Formal legal basis on the conditions under which the Confederation can collect the cantonal tax data required for statistical projects. It is therefore prepared to develop a corresponding provision. Consequently, the Federal Council also requests that the simultaneously submitted Motion 25.3025 of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation of the National Council “Transmission of tax data by the cantons to the Confederation for statistical purposes. For a formal legal basis”. The Federal Council will pay particular attention to data protection and data security (data receipt, pseudonymization, data processing, data storage, etc.) when fulfilling the motion.
The Federal Council’s decision not to include the collection of tax data in the revised Statistical Data Collection Ordinance (SR 431.012.1) renders the request in this motion materially irrelevant.