As you may know, for the past several weeks I have been writing about what I am calling the Nebraska Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, which I intend to include in legislation for the consumption tax in January. This week I will tell you about the sixth right, which is the right to privacy.

The sixth right in the Nebraska Taxpayer Bill of Rights states that “the State of Nebraska shall respect, protect, and secure the confidentiality of each person’s personal tax reports and personal tax information, unless such rights are waived in writing by the person.”

When Edward Snowden leaked classified information from the National Security Agency back in 2013, he ignited new concerns about protecting private information in the new digital age. Few knew at that time that the federal government had been keeping records of every digital move they ever made.

We live in an age when hackers would like to steal our personal information, scam us on the Internet, and even take over our identity. Some have even lost their homes to identity thieves. Consequently, the issue of protecting our personal information has never been a more relevant topic than today.

Joseph S. Fulda of the Freeman once said, “The most egregious government violation of our privacy lies with our tax system, which is frankly frightening…” Fulda could not have been more correct. When you consider the vast amounts of information that the Nebraska Department of Revenue currently holds on the personal lives of Nebraskans, it is a wonder that our personal information has been protected to the degree that it has.

The health of our tax system depends wholeheartedly upon how well we protect the privacy of our citizens. When the New York Times can obtain decades of tax records and publish private information from President Donald Trump’s own tax records, we know that we have a big problem with securing confidentiality in our tax system. If private information can be leaked from the IRS, it can surely be leaked from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

Privacy is the guardian of liberty. Privacy tends to be one of those rights we forget about until it is lost. Once our right to privacy has been infringed upon, we feel violated and insecure. Whenever personal information about a person gets into the wrong hands, it becomes too late to conceal it. Like red wine on a white carpet, it can be seen by anyone in the room. Consequently, the time to fight for privacy is long before we ever lose it.

The consumption tax resolves the problem of privacy simply by giving far less information to the State to hold. Once the state income tax, the property tax, and the inheritance tax are all repealed, the State will no longer have a vested interest in knowing where a person works, how much money a person makes, or what kind of property that person owns. The consumption tax effectively turns the tables on the State and puts them on a court-ordered need to know basis. And I like that!