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(a) The information in a taxpayer’s return is confidential, as is any information the Tax Collector learns about a taxpayer’s business from the taxpayer or in response to the Tax Collector’s request for information made under Sections 6.4-1 or 6.5-1. Information regarding the Tax Collector’s investigation of a particular taxpayer, including the fact that the Tax Collector has sent a request for information to a particular taxpayer or is investigating a particular taxpayer, is also confidential. Except as permitted by this Section 6.22-1 or as otherwise required by law, neither the Tax Collector nor the Tax Collector’s staff, nor any other of the City’s current or former employees or agents may disclose taxpayer confidential information to any person.
(b) At the discretion of the Tax Collector, otherwise confidential information may be disclosed in any judicial proceeding or administrative proceeding pertaining to tax administration, determination, assessment, collection, or enforcement, of any civil or criminal liability arising under the Business and Tax Regulations Code if the information concerns a person who is a party to the proceeding, or the proceeding arose out of, or in connection with determining that person's civil or criminal liability, or the collection of that person's liability with respect to any tax imposed thereunder.
(c) At the discretion of the Tax Collector, disclosure of otherwise confidential information may be made to the extent such disclosures are reasonably necessary to obtaining information bearing a direct relationship to the determination, assessment, collection, or enforcement of any civil or criminal liability arising under the Business and Tax Regulations Code.
(d) At the discretion of the Tax Collector, the Tax Collector may disclose otherwise confidential information to employees or agents of the Tax Collector or other City employees who are engaged in matters preparatory to any judicial or administrative proceeding pertaining to the administration or enforcement of any civil or criminal liability arising out of the Business and Tax Regulations Code.
(e) If the Tax Collector determines that a liability owing from a taxpayer may be collected from another person, the Tax Collector may disclose to such other person information relevant to the determination and collection of tax due or owing from the taxpayer.
(f) The taxpayer, and the taxpayer’s successors, receivers, trustees, executors, administrators, assignees, and guarantors, and their duly authorized legal representatives if directly interested, may be given information regarding the items included in the measure and amount of any unpaid tax or amounts of tax required to be collected, interest, and penalties.
(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of the Business and Tax Regulations Code or of any City ordinance, the Tax Collector is authorized to enter into agreements with other public agencies providing for the exchange of information for official purposes of said agencies, and to implement any such agreement through the exchange of information.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of the Business and Tax Regulations Code or of any City ordinance, the Tax Collector shall provide any and all information to the Controller that is needed to fulfill the Controller's responsibilities under Section 3.105 of the Charter. With regard to all such information provided by the Tax Collector, the Controller shall be subject to the confidentiality provisions of subsection (a) of this Section.
(i) The Tax Collector may disclose to any City employee or agent for official purposes any information described in subsection (a) in aggregate or other form that does not disclose the identity of particular taxpayers.
(j) Nothing in this Section shall impose any liability upon the Tax Collector or any employee or agent thereof for any disclosures of confidential information made in the performance of his or her duties.
(Added by Ord. 18-98, App. 1/16/98; amended by Ord. 26-04, File No. 031990, App. 2/19/2004; Ord. 291-10, File No. 101099, App. 11/18/2010; Ord. 152-21, File No. 210828, App. 9/29/2021, Eff. 10/30/2021)
If any sentence, clause, or section or any part of the Business and Tax Regulations Code is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, illegal, or invalid, such unconstitutionality, illegality, or invalidity shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections, or parts of the Business and Tax Regulations Code. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the enacting body that the Business and Tax Regulations Code would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal, or invalid sentence, clause, section, or part thereof not been included therein.
(Added by Ord. 18-98, App. 1/16/98; amended by Ord. 26-04, File No. 031990, App. 2/19/2004; Ord. 152-21, File No. 210828, App. 9/29/2021, Eff. 10/30/2021)
The Board of Supervisors may amend or repeal Article 6 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code without a vote of the people except as limited by Article XIIIC of the California Constitution.
(Added by Proposition E, App. 11/6/2012, Oper. 12/14/2012)
Subject to annual appropriations to cover its costs that exceed any fees charged, by June 30, 2025, the Tax Collector shall establish a program to provide advance determinations to taxpayers for the Business Registration Fee (Article 12), the Gross Receipts Tax (Article 12-A-1), the Early Care and Education Commercial Rents Tax (Article 21), the Homelessness Gross Receipts Tax (Article 28), the Cannabis Business Tax (Article 30), and the Overpaid Executive Gross Receipts Tax (Article 33) (including any tax on administrative office business activities imposed under any of the foregoing) regarding: (a) the Business Activity Category for a particular business activity; (b) whether a person or combined group may use an alternative apportionment formula under Sections 957, 2108, 2807, 3007, and 3306; and (c) any other issues that the Tax Collector, in the Tax Collector’s sole discretion, deems appropriate. The Tax Collector shall have the sole discretion as to whether to issue an advance determination on any of (a) through (c) above to any particular request for an advance determination, and shall have sole discretion to determine the parameters of the program, but shall hold a public hearing and comment process to solicit feedback from taxpayers prior to establishing the program. The Tax Collector may charge a fee for requests for advance determinations to cover some or all of its costs of issuing such determinations.
(Added by Proposition M, 11/5/2024, Eff. 12/20/2024)