172.14 CONFIDENTIALITY.

   (A)    Any information gained as a result of returns, investigations, hearings, or verifications required or authorized by ORC 718 or by the charter or ordinance of the Municipality is confidential, and no person shall access or disclose such information except in accordance with a proper judicial order or in connection with the performance of that person's official duties or the official business of the Municipality as authorized by ORC 718 or the charter or ordinance authorizing the levy. The Tax Administrator of the Municipality or a designee thereof may furnish copies of returns filed or otherwise received under this chapter and other related tax information to the Internal Revenue Service, the State Tax Commissioner, and Tax Administrators of other municipal corporations.

   (B)    This section does not prohibit the Municipality from publishing or disclosing statistics in a form that does not disclose information with respect to particular taxpayers.

   (C)    As used in this section, "INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT" means the office administering this chapter.

      (1)   All employees of the Municipality Income Tax Department shall maintain complete confidentiality over all data and statistical information compiled by them in their capacity as employees of the Municipality Income Tax Department, subject to the exceptions provided for in this section. This section shall apply only to the Municipality income tax, and not to any other tax data gathered by such employees in the normal course of their employment. All confidential information may be subject to Court Order or subpoena, or may be disclosed upon a proper release executed by the affected taxpayer.

      (2)   The following statistical data may be transmitted to another Municipality department for internal administrative purposes: information that may be obtained from a separate source, including names, addresses and telephone numbers.

      (3)   The following statistical data may be transmitted to another Municipality department for internal administrative purposes: data regarding the collective payroll withholding taxes of a business entity located within the Municipality, as long as such business entity involves more than one individual for whom the withholding tax payments are being generated.

      (4)   The following statistical data may be transmitted to another Municipality department for internal administrative purposes: data regarding the number of employees and the total payroll taxes generated by all employees of a business entity located within the Municipality as long as the business entity employs more than one individual at any time. This data shall only include the total number of employees and the combined total payroll taxes, and shall not include earnings or payroll taxes of individual employees of such business entity.

      (5)   No employee of the Municipality Income Tax Department shall disclose to the general public or to any other Municipality department data concerning individual earnings or profits earned by an individual or by a business entity. No statistical or administrative data shall be disseminated or disclosed to members of the general public.

      (6)   Upon proper release, individual data, including confidential data, may be released. The Municipality Income Tax Department shall maintain a copy of the release after such data has been disclosed.

         (Ord. 2015-40. Passed 11-24-15.)