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Dr Piotr Woltanowski
ORCID: 0000-0002-2154-3587

Juris Doctor, DSc, PhD, assistant professor at the Department of Public Finance and Financial Law of the University of Bialystok. Graduate of MA and PhD studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bialystok. Author of over 90 scientific publications in the field of the protection of taxpayers’ rights, the implementation of the state budget, the functioning of the National Revenue Administration and the history of human rights and the history of science etc. He has been a permanent, legal mediator in commercial affairs at Warsaw District Court.

 
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2026.5.5
JEL: K10, K34

The practice of the tax administration should respect the constitutionally protected medical confidentiality and the right to privacy of patients. Meanwhile, in recent years, the National Revenue Administration carried out inspections in healthcare facilities to such an extent, that the inspectors used information from medical documentation. Such actions – despite the fact that they are aimed at elimination of possible irregularities in the scope of income taxation – do not deserve approval due to the risk of violation of constitutional rights to privacy in the field of health condition of the citizen. The methodology of the inspections, including, for example, assessing the income of doctors based on the number of prescriptions they issue, is largely flawed. Financial interest of the State and medical confidentiality should be satisfied and protected wisely. Practice which results in conflict of these constitutional values should be avoided. This article is intended to highlight areas in which, such a conflict has occurred in recent years, but above all to indicate fields in which the rightly protected individual and public interests can be reconciled.

Keywords: fiscal administration; protection of the State’s financial security; protection of patient rights