As of today, data on personal income tax returns and expenditure notifications of the population are opened on the Lithuanian Open Data Portal.

The value of open data no longer needs to be discussed – the pandemic period has shown that it can be interesting and necessary not only for scientists, analysts or data producers, but also for the general public. The data sets of the State Tax Inspectorate opened today are undoubtedly valuable in analyzing taxes paid by the population and costs incurred, enabling to reduce taxable income.

These data sets are the first that have been prepared in cooperation with the following three institutions: the State Tax Inspectorate, Statistics Lithuania and the Information Society Development Committee. They launch a new process in the state data economy – centralized and automated opening of data stored in different institutional systems.

A new "player" in the "sandbox" of state data opening

A new provision appeared in the Law on the Right to Information and Re-use of Data of the Republic of Lithuania adopted in the middle of last year – when transferring data sets to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, institutions use the functionality of the state information system managed by an institution authorized by the Government. This means that data of the state information systems and registers to be opened to the Open Data Portal are provided through the State Data Governance Information System (SDG IS) managed by Statistics Lithuania. In other words, the opening of state information systems is centralized and automated at the state level.

“We understand data opening as one of the functions and development opportunities of SDG IS. This goal is unavoidable also because we receive a significant part of the planned to open public sector data for official statistics; using the obtained data not only to produce statistics, but also opening them we would reduce the duplication of functions between institutions and the burden of opening up falling upon the authorities opening data. Conversely, once we have received data from institutions for opening up, we could use them to compile official statistics. In addition, we could open not isolated data sets provided by separate institutions, but merged, thus increasing the value of their content”, says Dr Jūratė Petrauskienė, Director General of Statistics Lithuania.

Privacy vs. Accuracy and detail

In the open personal income tax and expenditure data set, personal data is fully protected from possible disclosure. This is one of the most difficult tasks for the experts of Statistics Lithuania, who are responsible for ensuring confidentiality.

"We are used to working with aggregated data, so finding “the happy medium” (“golden mean”) and ensuring the security of personal data while at the same time maintaining their accuracy and detail is not easy. Finding and applying the most appropriate methods takes time, but each successful application sets a precedent for other datasets”, optimistically notes Dr Inga Masiulaitytė-Šukevič, Deputy Director General, heading the Confidential Data Management Commission in Statistics Lithuania.

In the near future, in cooperation with the State Tax Inspectorate, it is planned to open data on personal income. In total, this year, Statistics Lithuania will help to open data to almost thirty institutions.

We remind you that you can provide the need for new open data sets on the Lithuanian Open Data Portal https://data.gov.lt/.

For inquiry:
Giedrė Norvaišienė
Adviser, Statistics Dissemination and Communication Division
Email duomenys@stat.gov.lt  

SDG IS https://duomenys.stat.gov.lt/atviri-duomenys/;
Open Data Portal https://data.gov.lt/