Except in accordance with proper judicial order, or as otherwise provided by law, it shall be unlawful for the Commissioner or any officer or employee of the City to divulge or make known in any manner any information relating to the business of a taxpayer contained in any return required under this chapter. The officers charged with the custody of such 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 Commissioner in an action or proceeding under the provisions of this chapter, or on behalf of any party to any action or proceeding under the provisions of this chapter when the returns or facts shown thereby are directly involved in such action or proceeding, in either of which events the court may require the production of, and may admit in evidence so much of said returns or of facts shown thereby, as are pertinent to the action or proceeding and no more. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the delivery to a taxpayer or the taxpayer’s duly authorized representative of a certified copy of any return filed in connection with his or her tax nor to prohibit the publication of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification of particular returns and the items thereof, or the inspection by the Director of Law or other legal representatives of the City, of the 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 chapter may be instituted. Returns shall be preserved for three (3) years and thereafter until the Commissioner permits them to be destroyed.
(Ord. No. 518-91. Passed 6-17-91, eff. 6-20-91)