September 07 2001

Paris - Thousands of French taxpayers were up in arms on Friday after a computer fiasco sent tax bills to the wrong addresses, giving people the rare chance to steal a glimpse at their neighbours' financial secrets.

Irate citizens jammed a special hotline with questions and flocked to their local tax offices. Pensioners harangued Budget Minister Florence Parly when she turned up at a tax office in central Paris to apologise.

The Finance Ministry pledged to clear up what it called the "extremely regrettable confusion", which civil service trade unions said hit up to 18 different areas around the country, including parts of Paris and its suburbs.

'I found out my neighbour had lied to me about her age'

"Our neighbours know how much tax we're paying. It's not right Ma'am. The tax office should be more careful," one woman yelled at Parly, who could only stammer her apologies and blame the mistake on a computer glitch.

"The tax authorities are doing everything within their power to help those concerned so they receive the correct form as soon as possible," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The fiasco opened up a Pandora's box for gossip in a country where people may talk freely about their sex lives but keep their financial affairs firmly under wraps.

Media reports said some 12 000 taxpayers had received forms marked with the correct name and address on the front page, but some else's financial and personal details inside. French taxpayers receive their annual bills in September.

The media in Paris, one of the worst-hit areas, had a field day recounting reactions of residents who began receiving their tax bills on Thursday.

"I had 80 calls in one morning from people who received the wrong form, including one from someone who said he was looking at mine," Thierry Mandon, mayor of Ris-Orangis south of Paris, told Le Parisien.

"It's a huge scandal - I know everything about my neighbours now," one woman said.

Some taxpayers were seething because the form, which lists all sorts of delicate details like age, marital status and salary, has scuppered some of their most careful white lies.

"I found out my neighbour had lied to me about her age. It turns out she's actually older than her husband... It's embarrassing isn't it?" another woman told Le Parisien.

"I'm going to feel so uncomfortable when I bump into my neighbours from now on," she added.

A young British journalist noticed something was wrong when her bill included a reduction for one dependent child. "I don't have any children," she said.

The Communist-led CGT union blamed the fiasco on a partial privatisation of the tax system, which cut the number of data centres from 15 to six and left fewer staff to check for errors.

The Finance Ministry said it would immediately suspend all disputed cases and that the tax authorities would launch an inquiry within the next 10 days. - Reuters

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