N.Y. Tax Law § 202: Secrecy required of officials; penalty for violation

§ 202. Secrecy required of officials; penalty for violation. 1. Except

in accordance with proper judicial order or as otherwise provided by

law, it shall be unlawful for any tax commissioner, any officer or

employee of the department of taxation and finance, or any person who,

pursuant to this section, is permitted to inspect any report, or to whom

any information contained in any report is furnished, or any person

engaged or retained by such department on an independent contract basis,

or any person who in any manner may acquire knowledge of the contents of

a report filed pursuant to this article, to divulge or make known in any

manner the amount of income or any particulars set forth or disclosed in

any report under this article. The officers charged with the custody of

such reports 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 state or the commissioner of taxation and

finance in an action or proceeding under the provisions of this chapter

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

due under this chapter to which the state or the commissioner of

taxation and finance is a party or a claimant, or on behalf of any party

to any action or proceeding under the provisions of this article when

the reports 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 or of

the facts shown thereby, as are pertinent to the action or proceeding

and no more. The commissioner of taxation and finance may, nevertheless,

publish a copy or a summary of any determination or decision rendered

after the formal hearing provided for in section one thousand

eighty-nine of this chapter. Nothing herein shall be construed to

prohibit the delivery to a corporation or its duly authorized

representative of a copy of any report filed by it, nor to prohibit the

publication of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification

of particular reports and the items thereof, or the publication of

delinquent lists showing the names of taxpayers who have failed to pay

their taxes at the time and in the manner provided by section one

hundred ninety-seven together with any relevant information which in the

opinion of the commissioner of taxation and finance may assist in the

collection of such delinquent taxes; or the inspection by the

attorney-general or other legal representatives of the state of the

report of any corporation which shall bring action to set aside or

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

under this chapter has been recommended by the commissioner of taxation

and finance or the attorney-general or has been instituted; or the

inspection of the reports of any corporation by the comptroller or duly

designated officer or employee of the state department of audit and

control, for purposes of the audit of a refund of any tax paid by such

corporation under this article; or the disclosing to a state agency,

pursuant to section one hundred seventy-one-f of this chapter, of the

name and taxpayer identification number of any taxpayer whose

overpayment is certified to the comptroller to be credited against a

past-due legally enforceable debt owed to such state agency and the

amount of the overpayment and interest thereon certified to the

comptroller to be credited against a past-due legally enforceable debt;

or the disclosing to the commissioner of finance of the city of New

York, pursuant to section one hundred seventy-one-l of this chapter, of

the name and taxpayer identification number of any taxpayer whose

overpayment is certified to the comptroller to be credited against a

city of New York tax warrant judgment debt. Provided, further, nothing

herein shall be construed to prohibit the disclosure of the names of

corporations subject to tax under section one hundred eighty-two or one

hundred eighty-two-a of this article, or to any two or all of such

taxes, for purposes of assisting corporations subject to such tax or

taxes in determining whether a gross receipt or a gross receipt from

sales of petroleum is an excludible gross receipt or excludible gross

receipt from sales of petroleum because it is derived from a sale for

resale.

2. (a) Any officer or employee of the state who willfully violates the

provisions of subdivision one of this section shall be dismissed from

office and be incapable of holding any public office in this state for a

period of five years thereafter.

(b) Cross-reference: For criminal penalties, see article thirty-seven

of this chapter.

3. Notwithstanding any provisions of this section, the tax commission

may permit the secretary of the treasury of the United States or his

delegates, or the proper officer of any other state charged with tax

administration, or the authorized representative of either such officer,

to inspect the reports filed under this article, or may furnish to such

officer or his authorized representative an abstract of any such report

or supply information concerning an item contained in any such report,

or disclosed by an investigation of tax liability under this article,

but such permission shall be granted or such information furnished to

such officer or his representative only if the laws of the United States

or of such other state, as the case may be, grant substantially similar

privileges to the commission or officer of this state charged with the

administration of the tax imposed by this article and such information

is to be used for tax purposes only; and provided further the

commissioner of taxation and finance may furnish to the secretary of the

treasury of the United States or his delegates such reports filed under

this article and other tax information, as he may consider proper, for

use in court actions or proceedings under the internal revenue code,

whether civil or criminal, where a written request therefor has been

made to the commissioner of taxation and finance by the secretary of the

treasury or his delegates provided the laws of the United States grant

substantially similar powers to the secretary of the treasury or his

delegates. Where the commissioner of taxation and finance has so

authorized use of reports or other tax information in such actions or

proceedings, officers and employees of the department of taxation and

finance may testify in such actions or proceedings in respect to such

reports or other tax information.

4. Notwithstanding any provisions of this section, the tax commission

may furnish any municipality with such information contained in the

franchise tax reports filed under this article as it may consider proper

for use in any certiorari or condemnation proceedings, and may furnish

any authorized officer or employee of the department of financial

services of the state of New York with any information contained in the

franchise tax reports of corporations liable to pay a tax under section

one hundred eighty-seven of this chapter, provided such information is

to be used for tax purposes only.

5. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section,

the tax commission, in its discretion, may require or permit any or all

persons liable for any fee or tax imposed by this article, to make

payment of any fee, tax, penalty or interest imposed by this article to

banks, banking houses or trust companies designated by the tax

commission and to file reports with such banks, banking houses or trust

companies as agents of the tax commission, in lieu of making any such

payment directly to the tax commission. However, the tax commission

shall designate only such banks, banking houses or trust companies as

are or shall be designated by the comptroller as depositories pursuant

to section two hundred six.

6. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this

section, upon written request from the chairperson of the committee on

ways and means of the United States House of Representatives, the

chairperson of the committee on finance of the United States Senate, or

the chairperson of the joint committee on taxation of the United States

Congress, the commissioner shall furnish such committee with any current

or prior year reports specified in such request that were filed under

this article by the president of the United States, vice-president of

the United States, member of the United States Congress representing New

York state, or any person who served in or was employed by the executive

branch of the government of the United States on the executive staff of

the president, in the executive office of the president, or in an acting

or confirmed capacity in a position subject to confirmation by the

United States senate; or, in New York state: a statewide elected

official, as defined in paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section

seventy-three-a of the public officers law; a state officer or employee,

as defined in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (c) of subdivision one of

such section seventy-three-a; a political party chairperson, as defined

in paragraph (h) of subdivision one of such section seventy-three-a; a

local elected official, as defined in subdivisions one and two of

section eight hundred ten of the general municipal law; a person

appointed, pursuant to law, to serve due to vacancy or otherwise in the

position of a local elected official, as defined in subdivisions one and

two of section eight hundred ten of the general municipal law; a member

of the state legislature; or a judge or justice of the unified court

system; or filed by a partnership, firm, association, corporation,

joint-stock company, trust or similar entity directly or indirectly

controlled by any individual listed in this paragraph, whether by

contract, through ownership or control of a majority interest in such

entity, or otherwise, or filed by a partnership, firm, association,

corporation, joint-stock company, trust or similar entity of which any

individual listed in this paragraph holds ten percent or more of the

voting securities of such entity; provided however that, prior to

furnishing any report, the commissioner shall redact any copy of a

federal return (or portion thereof) attached to, or any information on a

federal return that is reflected on, such report, and any social

security numbers, account numbers and residential address information.

(b) No reports shall be furnished pursuant to this subdivision unless

the chairperson of the requesting committee certifies in writing that

such reports have been requested related to, and in furtherance of, a

legitimate task of the Congress, that the requesting committee has made

a written request to the United States secretary of the treasury for

related federal reports or report information, pursuant to 26 U.S.C.

Section 6103(f), and that if such requested reports are inspected by

and/or submitted to another committee, to the United States House of

Representatives, or to the United States Senate, then such inspection

and/or submission shall occur in a manner consistent with the federal

law as informed by requirements and procedures established in 26 U.S.C.

Section 6103(f).