2006 Kansas Code - 79-15,118

      79-15,118.   Same; reports and returns; preservation; confidentiality, exceptions; unlawful acts; penalties. (a) All reports and returns required under the provisions of the Kansas estate tax act shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the director of taxation orders them to be destroyed.

      (b)   Except in accordance with proper judicial order, or as provided in subsection (c) of this section, subsection (g) of K.S.A. 17-7511, and amendments thereto, or 46-1106, and amendments thereto, it shall be unlawful for the director of taxation, or any deputy, agent, clerk or other officer, employee or former employee of the department of revenue or any other state officer or employee or former state officer or employee to divulge, or to make known in any way, the value of any estate or any particulars set forth or disclosed in any report, return, federal return or federal return information required under the provisions of the Kansas estate tax act; and it shall be unlawful for the director of taxation, any deputy, agent, clerk or other officer or employee of the department of revenue engaged in the administration of the Kansas estate tax act to engage in the business or profession of tax accounting or to accept employment, with or without consideration, from any person, firm or corporation for the purpose, directly or indirectly, of preparing tax returns or reports required by the laws of the state of Kansas, by any other state or by the United States government, or to accept any employment for the purpose of advising, preparing material or data, or the auditing of books or records to be used in an effort to defeat or cancel any tax or part thereof that has been assessed by the state of Kansas, any other state or by the United States government.

      (c)   Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the publication of statistics, so classified as to prevent the identification of particular reports or returns and the items thereof, or the inspection of returns by the attorney general or other legal representatives of the state. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the post auditor from access to all estate tax reports or returns in accordance with and subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of K.S.A. 46-1106, and amendments thereto. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the disclosure of the taxpayer's name, social security number, last known address and total tax liability, including penalty and interest, from estate tax returns to a debt collection agency contracting with the secretary of revenue pursuant to K.S.A. 75-5140 to 75-5143, inclusive, and amendments thereto. Any person receiving any information under the provisions of this subsection shall be subject to the confidentiality provisions of subsection (b) and to the penalty provisions of subsection (d).

      (d)   Any violation of subsections (b) or (c) shall be a class B misdemeanor; and if the offender be an officer or employee of the state, such officer or employee shall be dismissed from office.

      (e)   Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the secretary of revenue may permit the commissioner of internal revenue of the United States, or the proper official of any state imposing an inheritance or estate tax, or the authorized representative of either, to inspect the estate tax returns made under the provisions of the Kansas estate tax act and the secretary of revenue may make available or furnish to the taxing officials of any other state or the commissioner of internal revenue of the United States or other taxing officials of the federal government, or their authorized representatives, information contained in inheritance tax reports or returns or any audit thereof or the report of any investigation made with respect thereto, filed pursuant to the Kansas estate tax act, as the secretary may consider proper, but such information shall not be used for any other purpose than that of the administration of tax laws of such state, the state of Kansas or of the United States.

      (f)   Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the estate tax return filed with respect to the estate of a decedent shall, upon written request, be open to inspection by or disclosure to: (1) The administrator, executor or trustee of such decedent's estate; and (2) any heir at law, next of kin or beneficiary under the will of such decedent or a donee or distributee of the decedent's property, but only if the secretary of revenue finds that such heir at law, next of kin, beneficiary, donee or distributee has a material interest which will be affected by information contained therein.

      History:   L. 1979, ch. 306, § 1; L. 1983, ch. 289, § 12; L. 1998, ch. 130, § 16; July 1.