Criticism of the Swedish Tax Agency for issuing a death certificate containing inaccurate information, and for procedural shortcomings

Summary of the decision: The Swedish Tax Agency issued a death certificate on which people were incorrectly listed as children of the deceased. When the Swedish Tax Agency registers a death in the Population Register, as a matter of procedure, the agency will check to make sure that the relatives stated in the deceased’s relatives report are correct. As far as has been ascertained in investigating this matter, this check is one way for the Swedish Tax Agency to correct any errors in the registration of relatives that may have arisen when the agency took over the Population Register from the Church of Sweden. According to the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman, it is therefore vital that these checks are thorough. Issuing inaccurate information can have serious consequences, both given that the information may be subject to secrecy and because it may be a difficult experience for other reasons for an individual to receive information on a relative’s death certificate that turns out to be incorrect. In this case, the complainant received a death certificate with an inaccurate relatives report because the information in the Population Register was incorrect. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that it is a serious matter that the Swedish Tax Agency issued incorrect information. The Swedish Tax Agency corrected the deceased’s relatives report on two different occasions, removing persons who were wrongly listed. It is a procedural error on the part of the Swedish Tax Agency that, when correcting one error, it failed to check whether the other person who was unknown to the complainant should rightfully have been listed. The Swedish Tax Agency is criticised for issuing a death certificate containing inaccurate information, and for procedural shortcomings.