When is HMRC’s duty of confidentiality overridden?

HMRC holds a large amount of information about taxpayers which it must not disclose to third parties unless legally permitted to do so. A balance must be struck between the need to protect the privacy of citizens and the necessity for public authorities such as HMRC to carry out their functions in a fair and efficient way.

That balance is governed by the laws of confidentiality and data protection (remodelled by the right to respect for private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights) which place limits on the sharing of private data to ensure that any disclosure by a public body is legitimate proportionate and ultimately lawful.

The...