A company which enables people to pay for car parking by mobile phone must hand over client details to the tax office, the appeal court in Den Bosch said on Tuesday.

At the end of last year, a lower court ruled that the tax office is not entitled to information about how long SMS Parking’s clients parked their cars because of privacy concerns.

According to broadcaster Nos, the appeal court acknowledged that handing over the information does conflict with privacy legislation but said this is outweighed by the public interest and need to levy correct amounts of tax.

News agency ANP says the tax office is required to destroy all the information if no fraud is indentified.

Company cars

The tax office demanded details of all 150,000 SMS clients’ parking habits in 2012 in order to check that company car drivers had not exceeded their personal mileage limits. The company refused to comply, saying its terms and conditions preclude this.

Yellow Brick and Parkline, which offer a similar service, have already provided the tax office with information about their clients, broadcaster Nos says.

Lease car drivers can avoid paying tax for their company car – up to 20% of the catalogue value – if they drive fewer than 500 km a year privately. Drivers have to keep a logbook of their car usage.

Tax inspectors already use cars fitted with special scanners in an effort to track down people who use their company cars for private business. Festivals, out-of-town shopping centres, sports events and other popular destinations are targeted in particular.