Eirik Stavelin on the journalistic potential of public tax returns showing income, tax paid and fortune.
These tax return lists are made public in Norway, though as Eirik points out, only to news organisations at a fee of around £450. Newspapers currently publish stories related to these figures (e.g. politician's salaries, prominent local public figures etc), but also allow their audiences to search the records for specific names online.
The article (in Norwegian) discusses how journalists can enhance their use of the data via for instance mashups and other online tools.
Now if only UK tax returns were made public…
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