Confusion about the roles of public authorities affects citizens | 13 should have referred to the rules of law on which the decision was based. Furthermore, there ought to have been made a written record of the telephone conversation in which the boy’s legal guardian was informed of the school transfer. Besides, in the Ombudsman’s opinion it would have been most correct to deliver the decision in written form. The Ombudsman criticised the errors which the school had made in the process but not the actual decision to transfer the boy to a different school. Consequently, in this situation the school not being aware of its role resulted in a number of errors. When the guidance becomes a little too concrete Under the category ‘actual administrative activity’ falls also guidance of citizens and businesses. In the nature of things, guidance can include practically everything within the authority’s area of responsibility. Regarding the municipalities, it may be how to apply for a nursery place, and in regard to the regions how to make use of the free choice of hospitals. Guidance may also be about how certain rules are to be understood. Especially in the last of these situations, authorities must make sure that it is clear to the citizens that the guidance is guidance only, and that, as a general rule, the guidance is binding on neither citizen nor authority. In other words, an actual decision has not been made. In a major investigation of the guidance replies (Case No. 2019-25) from the customer centre of the Danish Tax Agency, the Ombudsman found several replies which appeared like actual decisions rather than guidance. Examples include a citizen who asked if he could deduct expenses of the installation of a charging box for an electric car on his tax return form. The customer centre replied: ‘It is not possible to deduct the installation of a charging box for an electric car as this is not included in the home renovation deduction.’ It does not appear from the reply that it is solely a matter of guidance. The reply – which is very concrete – could within reason be perceived as an actual decision about rejection of deduction. The investigation also showed examples of replies which could be perceived as decisions about entitlement to deduction. The customer centre replied for instance to a question about the possibility of deduction: ‘The expenses you have had in connection with publishing the book can be deducted from the fees you are getting. As a fee recipient you have to deduct the expenses under the heading 29 on the tax return form and section 425 on the preliminary assessment of income.’ You can ask yourself if it is not irrelevant, really, whether the citizen thinks it is a decision. The answer is no. Because what if the guidance is incorrect? Or if there were details missing in the enquiry which would have led to another reply if the authority had known this information. There is a risk that a citizen who wrongly perceives the guidance as a decision and acts, or refrains to act, in reliance on the reply, suffers a loss of rights. The citizen may for instance miss out on a deduction or a payment which he or she would have been entitled to otherwise. It is also important to distinguish between guidance and decisions because decision-making