In the contemporary world, tax systems may not be expected to be fully operative if there is a low degree of a voluntary payment of tax duties. For this reason, tax authorities have been paying more attention to the protection of the fundamental tax payers' rights. The importance of this protection is ever more significant in the circumstances of accelerated communication among states by means of information technologies. In this paper, the author first lays down a general normative framework for exercising and protecting tax payers' rights. These rights are further discussed in the context of the fundamental human rights and freedoms, being their integral part. The author emphasizes that there is a real danger from the violation of the tax payers' fundamental rights both on the national scale and, increasingly, in the international cooperation between tax authorities, which are obliged by some international agreements to exchange tax information. The fast digitalization of the modern society has posed a new challenge to the states to secure an adequate and efficient protection of tax payers' legal position.