SUMMARIES OF SELECTED STATEMENTS The man – who for a number of years had been granted exemption from payment of premiums in connection with the pension scheme due to disablement – was of the opinion that he was covered by a special rule on exemption from tax pursuant to the Act on Taxation of Pensions. It followed from this rule that no tax was to be paid on that part of a pension payout which corresponds to payments for which there has been no deductibility. The tax authorities emphasised that due to the exemption from payment of premiums, the man had not made any payments (i.e. paid premiums) for which there was no deductibility, and that therefore the rule did not apply. The man was of the opinion that the premiums he had paid into the scheme over the years until he was exempted from payment of premiums covered the insurance company’s risk in undertaking to grant exemption from payment of premiums, and that in this way payments with no deductibility had been made – within the meaning of the provision. The Ombudsman did not agree. In the opinion of the Ombudsman, neither the wording of the provision nor its explanatory notes could be interpreted this way. The provision was aimed at creating taxation symmetry, meaning that premium payments without deductibility were to be counterbalanced by payouts exempt from tax. Since the amount corresponding to the exempted premiums had not been included when the man’s taxable income was assessed, exemption from payment of tax on the payouts would lead to a double tax benefit, which could not be assumed to be the objective of the rule. 2015-25. Partial refusal of access to information about meetings between Ministry of Taxation and lobbyists concerning changes to taxation of North Sea oil A journalist complained to the Ombudsman because he had received a partial refusal from the Ministry of Taxation of access to information about the meetings between the Ministry and lobbyists concerning changes to the taxation of North Sea oil in 2013. In the case of some of the documents and information exempted by the Ministry, the grounds given were that they were covered by the specific confidentiality provision in section 17 of the Tax Administration Act and thus, pursuant to section 35 of the Access to Public Administration Files Act, not covered by the right to access. 147