§ 78 — Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation

§ 78. Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation.-- Except in\naccordance with proper judicial order or as otherwise provided by law,\nit shall be unlawful for the administrator or any other officer or\nemployee of the department, bureau or other agency of the city\nadministering the tax imposed by this local law, any person engaged or\nretained by such administrator, department, bureau or other agency or an\nindependent contract basis, or any person who, pursuant to this section,\nis permitted to inspect any report or return or to whom a copy, an\nabstract or a portion of any report or return is furnished, or to whom\nany information contained in any report or return is furnished, to\ndivulge or make known in any manner the amount of income or any\nparticulars set forth or disclosed in any report or return required\nunder this local law. The administrator or any other officer and\nemployee charged with the custody of such reports and returns shall not\nbe required to produce any of them or evidence of anything contained in\nthem in any action or proceeding in any court, except on behalf of the\ncity in an action or proceeding under the provisions of this local law\nor in any other action or proceeding involving the collection of a tax\ndue under this local law to which the city is a party or a claimant, or\non behalf of any party to any action or proceeding under the provisions\nof this local law when the reports, returns or facts shown thereby are\ndirectly involved in such action or proceeding, in any of which events\nthe court may require the production of, and may admit in evidence, so\nmuch of said reports, returns or of the facts shown thereby, as are\npertinent to the action or proceeding and no more; except as provided in\nsubdivision (e) of section seventy-seven. The administrator may,\nnevertheless, publish a copy or a summary of any determination or\ndecision rendered after the hearing required under section sixty-nine of\nthis local law. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the\ndelivery to a taxpayer or his duly authorized representative of a\ncertified copy of any return or report filed in connection with his tax\nor to prohibit the publication of statistics so classified as to prevent\nthe identification of particular reports or returns and the items\nthereof, or the inspection by the legal representatives of the city of\nthe report or return of any taxpayer who shall bring action to set aside\nor review the tax based thereon, or against whom an action or proceeding\nunder this local law has been recommended by the administrator. Reports\nand returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the\nadministrator orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the\nprovisions of this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one\nthousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at\nthe discretion of the court, and if the offender be the administrator or\nany other officer or employee of the city, he shall be dismissed from\noffice and be incapable of holding any public office in the city or the\nstate for a period of five years thereafter.\n