Taxman Allowed Access to Personal Information

    London Telegraph

Tax officials will be allowed access to personal data gathered for the controversial ID cards scheme, it has been disclosed.

HM Revenue and Customs staff will be able to examine people's financial transactions on the scheme's database and search for evidence of undeclared earnings or bank accounts.

The disclosure will likely to provoke further concern over the £5.5 billion project, which has been condemned as a waste of money and an invasion of privacy.

Campaigners have already raised fears the Home Office, police, and security officials would have access to the scheme's database.

The scheme's log records each time an ID card is used to verify a person's identity when they make a high value purchase, open a bank account or take out a mortgage.

Tax officials could use the system to look for cases where large numbers of high value purchases have been recorded, which might indicate that a person earns more than they declare.

The database will also include information on checks made by employers that job applicants are eligible to work in Britain. This could alert the taxman to people who have undeclared second occupations.

Companies will be allowed to check details on the database for a fee of around 60p per inquiry. Each time a check is made against the ID card, it will be logged on the National Identity Register.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign, told the Daily Mail: "It would be hypocrisy of the highest order for politicians so reluctant to come clean on their own personal finances to pass legislation that would let the taxman snoop through all of ours.

"The big lie of the ID scheme is that it's for our benefit – the detail shows it's all about giving the bureaucrats and bean-counters more control."

The news comes two weeks after the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was forced to scrap plans for a national communications database amid privacy fears.

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