What you pay in taxes is public (anyone can look it up), and it's normally easy to calculate taxable income from that. (Not always, there could be various events that throws the calculation off).
Although in recent years, all lookups are logged and displayed to the other party, which has a chilling effect. I would like the old system back.
You bring up a very good point, but I'm not sure I see an inconsistency here,
Tax records are records owned and controlled by the government. It's information that has already been collected, and is accessible by some institutions, but not others, creating an imbalance in information.
I want government to be transparent, and I generally support initiatives to make information public. But I'm not sure I like the idea of the government or some other big brother type knowing who is accessing what information. I say that as a general principle, with notable exceptions.
Although in recent years, all lookups are logged and displayed to the other party, which has a chilling effect. I would like the old system back.