N.Y. General City Law art. 2-D, § 78: Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation

§ 78. Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation.-- Except in

accordance with proper judicial order or as otherwise provided by law,

it shall be unlawful for the administrator or any other officer or

employee of the department, bureau or other agency of the city

administering the tax imposed by this local law, any person engaged or

retained by such administrator, department, bureau or other agency or an

independent contract basis, or any person who, pursuant to this section,

is permitted to inspect any report or return or to whom a copy, an

abstract or a portion of any report or return is furnished, or to whom

any information contained in any report or return is furnished, to

divulge or make known in any manner the amount of income or any

particulars set forth or disclosed in any report or return required

under this local law. The administrator or any other officer and

employee charged with the custody of such reports and returns shall not

be required to produce any of them or evidence of anything contained in

them in any action or proceeding in any court, except on behalf of the

city in an action or proceeding under the provisions of this local law

or in any other action or proceeding involving the collection of a tax

due under this local law to which the city is a party or a claimant, or

on behalf of any party to any action or proceeding under the provisions

of this local law when the reports, returns or facts shown thereby are

directly involved in such action or proceeding, in any of which events

the court may require the production of, and may admit in evidence, so

much of said reports, returns or of the facts shown thereby, as are

pertinent to the action or proceeding and no more; except as provided in

subdivision (e) of section seventy-seven. The administrator may,

nevertheless, publish a copy or a summary of any determination or

decision rendered after the hearing required under section sixty-nine of

this local law. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the

delivery to a taxpayer or his duly authorized representative of a

certified copy of any return or report filed in connection with his tax

or to prohibit the publication of statistics so classified as to prevent

the identification of particular reports or returns and the items

thereof, or the inspection by the legal representatives of the city of

the report or return of any taxpayer who shall bring action to set aside

or review the tax based thereon, or against whom an action or proceeding

under this local law has been recommended by the administrator. Reports

and returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the

administrator orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the

provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one

thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at

the discretion of the court, and if the offender be the administrator or

any other officer or employee of the city, he shall be dismissed from

office and be incapable of holding any public office in the city or the

state for a period of five years thereafter.