Polish tax office sent a letter to a Belarusian at a Minsk address

Illustrative photo Urzadskarbowy24.pl

The tax office of one of Warsaw's districts sent Valentin (name changed) a letter to his Minsk address. For political reasons, the Belarusian lives in Poland, does not return to his homeland, and believes that such actions by the authority could be dangerous for him. He is now trying to ensure that Polish officials do not send letters to Belarusian registration addresses. Valentin described the situation he found himself in to Most media.

In Poland, Valentin registered a foundation. He recalls that even then, the notary transcribed the registration address from his Belarusian passport. And the officials entered it into the system.

— I even asked then: "Why do you need this data? Are you going to send something there?" "No, it's just formal. Let it be."

Valentin specified a virtual address in Warsaw as the main address for the legal entity. He admits he might have forgotten something or "not fully concluded" something. But he wasn't too worried about not being found: the provided information included his phone number and email. He assumed that if questions arose, officials would find a way to contact him.

"I am not obliged to keep an eye on that letter in Minsk"

However, relatives from Belarus unexpectedly informed Valentin that a letter from the Polish tax office had arrived at his registration address in Minsk. In the message, the department asked him to fill out a form, adding certain data about the foundation, including the address where its activities are conducted.

The man believes that sending such letters to Belarus is dangerous for him and his relatives, and also simply ineffective.

— I am not obliged to keep an eye on that letter in Minsk. They might as well have sent it to Mars.

Now Valentin is consulting with lawyers and plans to file a complaint with the tax office, and is also trying to ensure that Polish officials no longer send letters to Belarusian registration addresses if this is a systemic practice.

— The task is to understand whether a person didn't realize that such things shouldn't be sent to Belarus, or if it's a systemic failure, — says Valentin.

Can EU regulations be relied upon in such cases?

The Belarusian refers to the 2011 case against Ales Bialiatski, head of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna". At that time, the case was based on bank account data provided at the request of the Belarusian side by officials from Lithuania and Poland within the framework of bilateral agreements on legal assistance.

This incident became one of the triggers for reviewing the EU's policy on transferring personal data to other countries. Belarus was included in the list of countries where personal information cannot be transferred simply at the request of state bodies. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted in 2016 and the corresponding directive, this requires an independent legal assessment of compliance with EU standards. In 2020, the Schrems II decision was adopted, which introduced the requirement to consider real risks to human rights in the destination country.

Theoretically, GDPR principles should not only apply to requests from state bodies but also should not cancel ordinary communication between an authority of one country and citizens of another, especially if it is necessary for the performance of official duties.

Currently, together with lawyers, Valentin is trying to ascertain whether the adopted EU regulations can apply to his case.

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