N.Y. Tax Law § 496-a: Returns to be secret

§ 496-a. Returns to be secret. (a) Except in accordance with proper

judicial order or as in this section or otherwise provided by law, it

shall be unlawful for the commissioner, any officer or employee of the

department, or any officer or person who, pursuant to this section, is

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

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

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

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

return or report filed pursuant to this article to divulge or make known

in any manner the content or any other information contained in any

return or report required under this article. The officers charged with

the custody of such returns or reports shall not be required to produce

any of them or evidence of anything contained in them in any action or

preceding in any court, except on behalf of the state, the office of

cannabis management, or the commissioner in an action or proceeding

involving the collection of tax due under this chapter to which the

state or the commissioner 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 returns or the reports or the facts shown thereby are directly

involved in such action or proceeding, or in an action or proceeding

related to the regulation or taxation of adult-use cannabis products on

behalf of officers to whom information shall have been supplied as

provided in this section, in any of which events the court may require

the production of, and may admit in evidence so much of said returns or

reports or of the facts shown thereby as are pertinent to the action or

proceeding and no more. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit

the commissioner, in his or her discretion, from allowing the inspection

or delivery of a certified copy of any return or report filed under this

article or of any information contained in any such return or report by

or to a duly authorized officer or employee of the office of cannabis

management; or by or to the attorney general or other legal

representatives of the state when an action shall have been recommended

or commenced pursuant to this chapter in which such returns or reports

or the facts shown thereby are directly involved; or the inspection of

the returns or reports required under this article 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 any

person under this article; nor to prohibit the delivery to such person

or a duly authorized representative of such person, a certified copy of

any return or report filed by such person pursuant to this article, nor

to prohibit the publication of statistics so classified as to prevent

the identification of particular returns or reports and the items

thereof. This section shall also not be construed to prohibit the

disclosure, for tax administration purposes, to the division of the

budget and the office of the state comptroller, of information

aggregated from the returns filed by all persons subject to the taxes

imposed by the article, whether the number of such persons is one or

more. Provided further that, notwithstanding the provisions of this

subdivision, the commissioner may, in his or her discretion, permit the

proper officer of any county entitled to receive any distribution of the

monies received on account of the tax imposed by subdivision (c) of

section four hundred ninety-three of this article, or the authorized

representative of such officer, to inspect any return filed under this

article, or may furnish to such officer or the officer's authorized

representative an abstract of any such return or supply such officer or

representative with information concerning an item contained in any such

return, or disclosed by any investigation of tax liability under this

article.

(b) The commissioner, in his or her discretion, may permit the

appropriate officers of any other state that regulates or taxes cannabis

or the duly authorized representatives of any such officers, to inspect

returns or reports made pursuant to this article, or may furnish to such

other officers, or their duly authorized representatives, a copy of any

such return or report or an abstract of the information therein

contained, or any portion thereof, or may supply any such officers or

such representatives with information relating to the business of a

person making returns or reports hereunder solely for purposes of tax

administration. The commissioner may refuse to supply information

pursuant to this subdivision to the officers of any other state if the

statutes of the state represented by such officers do not grant

substantially similar privileges to the commissioner, but such refusal

shall not be mandatory. Information shall not be supplied to the

officers of any state that regulates or taxes cannabis, or their duly

authorized representatives of any such officers, unless such officer or

other representatives shall agree not to divulge or make known in any

manner the information so supplied, but such officers may transmit such

information to their employees or legal representatives when necessary,

who in turn shall be subject to the same restrictions as those hereby

imposed upon such officer or other representatives.

(c)(1) Any officer or employee of the state who willfully violates the

provisions of subdivision (a) or (b) 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.

(2) For criminal penalties, see article thirty-seven of this chapter.