N.Y. General City Model 772/66 § 146: Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation

§ 146. 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 director of finance, the department of

finance of the city, any officer or employee of the department of

finance of the city, any person engaged or retained by such department

on 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 title. The officers 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 title or in any other action or proceeding involving

the collection of a tax due under this title 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 title 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. The director of finance may, nevertheless, publish a copy

or a summary of any determination or decision rendered after the hearing

required under section one hundred thirty-seven of this title. 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 corporation counsel or other 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 title has been recommended by the director of finance or the

corporation counsel or has been instituted, or the inspection of the

reports or returns required under this title by the duly designated

officers or employees of the city for purposes of an audit under this

title or an audit authorized by the act enacting this title. Reports and

returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the

director of finance orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the

provisions of this subdivision 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 an officer or

employee of the city or the state, 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.