Dutch watchdog slams tax office fraud list as privacy breach

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch data protection watchdog has issued a damning report on the country’s tax office, saying it breached the country’s privacy law for years by keeping a list of potential fraudsters. It was another blow for the scandal-plagued Dutch tax office that is embroiled in the fallout from a discredited effort to root out child welfare fraud that regulators said discriminated against citizens with double nationality. The country’s Data Protection Agency said Friday that the tax office stored personal details of taxpayers as part of its efforts to root out fraud and that isn’t allowed under privacy law. The Netherlands government has called the report “hard but justified.”