APPENDIX B: SUMMARIES OF SELECTED CASES O. MINISTRY OF TAXATION The following cases concluded in 2012 were selected for publication in the Annual Report: 2012-6. Rules that documents need not be signed must be stipulated in an executive order Under the authority of the Tax Administration Act, the Ministry of Taxation had laid down rules on digital communication within the Ministry’s remit in an executive order. The executive order stated, among other things, that some of the documents from SKAT (the Danish Central Customs and Tax Administration) need not be signed to be valid. Later on, the Ministry changed the rules so that these specific types of documents were no longer expressly mentioned in the executive order. At the same time a so-called ‘SKAT message’ was issued in which the types of documents in question were listed. The Ombudsman stated that, as the rules on which documents required signing involved regulation of citizens’ legal position, the rules should be stipulated in an executive order rather than published in a ‘SKAT message’. Furthermore, the Ombudsman was of the opinion that the rules should have been announced in the Law Gazette. The Ministry agreed with the Ombudsman’s conception of the law and would issue an executive order with the relevant rules as soon as possible. In addition, the Ombudsman found it unfortunate that the ‘SKAT message’ appeared to have been issued by SKAT when the Ministry of Taxation had informed him that it had in fact been issued by the Ministry’s Corporate Group Centre. 113