Criticism of the Swedish Tax Agency for providing misleading information to individuals concerning the processing of reported errors in the Swedish Population Register

Summary of the decision: AA notified the Swedish Tax Agency that BB was incorrectly registered as residing at her address. A few months later, an explosion occurred at the entrance to the building, which was probably targeted at BB. The Swedish Tax Agency then immediately corrected the error in the population register concerning BB. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman found no reason to criticise the agency for its processing of AA’s notification.

According to the Swedish Tax Agency, before the agency can investigate a report from a private citizen, the individual must state that they have been caused inconvenience by the error in the population register. If no such information is forthcoming, the Swedish Tax Agency will simply send the incorrectly registered individual a reminder to report a change of address, and then close the case.

Among other things, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman has reviewed the information provided to individuals who notify the agency of an error in the population register. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that the Swedish Tax Agency does not inform individual informants that, in principle, a case is always closed immediately unless the informant expressly states that she or he is being inconvenienced by the registration error. According to the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman, the information that is provided gives the impression that the agency always investigates reports of errors in the population register, which is not the case. It is the assessment of the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman that the information provided to individuals is misleading, and he criticises the Swedish Tax Agency accordingly.