2006 Code of Virginia § 58.1-3 - (Effective until January 1, 2007) Secrecy of information; penalties

58.1-3. (Effective until January 1, 2007) Secrecy of information; penalties.

A. Except in accordance with a proper judicial order or as otherwise providedby law, the Tax Commissioner or agent, clerk, commissioner of the revenue,treasurer, or any other state or local tax or revenue officer or employee, orany person to whom tax information is divulged pursuant to 58.1-2712.2, orany former officer or employee of any of the aforementioned offices shall notdivulge any information acquired by him in the performance of his duties withrespect to the transactions, property, including personal property, income orbusiness of any person, firm or corporation. Such prohibition specificallyincludes any copy of a federal return or federal return information requiredby Virginia law to be attached to or included in the Virginia return. Thisprohibition shall apply to any reports, returns, financial documents or otherinformation filed with the Attorney General pursuant to the provisions ofArticle 6 ( 3.1-336.3 et seq.) of Chapter 18 of Title 3.1. Any personviolating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 2misdemeanor. The provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable,however, to:

1. Matters required by law to be entered on any public assessment roll orbook;

2. Acts performed or words spoken or published in the line of duty under thelaw;

3. Inquiries and investigations to obtain information as to the process ofreal estate assessments by a duly constituted committee of the GeneralAssembly, or when such inquiry or investigation is relevant to its study,provided that any such information obtained shall be privileged;

4. The sales price, date of construction, physical dimensions orcharacteristics of real property, or any information required for buildingpermits;

5. Copies of or information contained in an estate's probate tax return,filed with the clerk of court pursuant to 58.1-1714, when requested by abeneficiary of the estate or an heir at law of the decedent;

6. Information regarding nonprofit entities exempt from sales and use taxunder 58.1-609.11, when requested by the General Assembly or any dulyconstituted committee of the General Assembly.

B. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit thepublication of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification ofparticular reports or returns and the items thereof or the publication ofdelinquent lists showing the names of taxpayers who are currently delinquent,together with any relevant information which in the opinion of the Departmentmay assist in the collection of such delinquent taxes. This section shall notbe construed to prohibit a local tax official from disclosing whether aperson, firm or corporation is licensed to do business in that locality anddivulging, upon written request, the name and address of any person, firm orcorporation transacting business under a fictitious name. Additionally,notwithstanding any other provision of law, the commissioner of revenue isauthorized to provide, upon written request stating the reason for suchrequest, the Tax Commissioner with information obtained from local taxreturns and other information pertaining to the income, sales and property ofany person, firm or corporation licensed to do business in that locality.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionof this title, the Tax Commissioner is authorized to: (i) divulge taxinformation to any commissioner of the revenue, director of finance or othersimilar collector of county, city or town taxes who, for the performance ofhis official duties, requests the same in writing setting forth the reasonsfor such request; (ii) provide to the Commissioner of the Department ofSocial Services, upon written request, information on the amount of income,filing status, number and type of dependents, and whether a federal earnedincome tax credit has been claimed as reported by persons on their stateincome tax returns who have applied for public assistance or social servicesbenefits as defined in 63.2-100; (iii) provide to the chief executiveofficer of the designated student loan guarantor for the Commonwealth ofVirginia, upon written request, the names and home addresses of those personsidentified by the designated guarantor as having delinquent loans guaranteedby the designated guarantor; (iv) provide current address information uponrequest to state agencies and institutions for their confidential use infacilitating the collection of accounts receivable, and to the clerk of acircuit or district court for their confidential use in facilitating thecollection of fines, penalties and costs imposed in a proceeding in thatcourt; (v) provide to the Commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission,after entering into a written agreement, such tax information as may benecessary to facilitate the collection of unemployment taxes and overpaidbenefits; (vi) provide to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, upon enteringinto a written agreement, such tax information as may be necessary tofacilitate the collection of state and local taxes and the administration ofthe alcoholic beverage control laws; (vii) provide to the Director of theState Lottery Department such tax information as may be necessary to identifythose lottery ticket retailers who owe delinquent taxes; (viii) provide tothe Department of the Treasury for its confidential use such tax informationas may be necessary to facilitate the location of owners and holders ofunclaimed property, as defined in 55-210.2; (ix) provide to the StateCorporation Commission, upon entering into a written agreement, such taxinformation as may be necessary to facilitate the collection of taxes andfees administered by the Commission; (x) provide to the Executive Director ofthe Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission for its confidentialuse such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate the collection ofthe motor vehicle fuel sales tax; (xi) provide to the Director of theDepartment of Charitable Gaming such tax information as may be necessary toidentify those applicants for registration as a supplier of charitable gamingsupplies who have not filed required returns or who owe delinquent taxes;(xii) provide to the Department of Housing and Community Development for itsconfidential use such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate theadministration of the remaining effective provisions of the Enterprise ZoneAct ( 59.1-270 et seq.), and the Enterprise Zone Grant Program ( 59.1-538et seq.); (xiii) provide current name and address information to privatecollectors entering into a written agreement with the Tax Commissioner, fortheir confidential use when acting on behalf of the Commonwealth or any ofits political subdivisions; however, the Tax Commissioner is not authorizedto provide such information to a private collector who has used ordisseminated in an unauthorized or prohibited manner any such informationpreviously provided to such collector; (xiv) provide current name and addressinformation as to the identity of the wholesale or retail dealer that affixeda tax stamp to a package of cigarettes to any person who manufactures orsells at retail or wholesale cigarettes and who may bring an action forinjunction or other equitable relief for violation of Chapter 10.1,Enforcement of Illegal Sale or Distribution of Cigarettes Act; (xv) provideto the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, upon entering into a writtenagreement, such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate thecollection of unpaid wages under 40.1-29; and (xvi) provide to the Directorof the Department of Human Resource Management, upon entering into a writtenagreement, such tax information as may be necessary to identify personsreceiving workers' compensation indemnity benefits who have failed to reportearnings as required by 65.2-712. The Tax Commissioner is furtherauthorized to enter into written agreements with duly constituted taxofficials of other states and of the United States for the inspection of taxreturns, the making of audits, and the exchange of information relating toany tax administered by the Department of Taxation. Any person to whom taxinformation is divulged pursuant to this section shall be subject to theprohibitions and penalties prescribed herein as though he were a tax official.

D. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionof this title, the commissioner of revenue or other assessing official isauthorized to (i) provide, upon written request stating the reason for suchrequest, the chief executive officer of any county or city with informationfurnished to the commissioner of revenue by the Tax Commissioner relating tothe name and address of any dealer located within the county or city who paidsales and use tax, for the purpose of verifying the local sales and use taxrevenues payable to the county or city; (ii) provide to the Department ofProfessional and Occupational Regulation for its confidential use the name,address, and amount of gross receipts of any person, firm or entity subjectto a criminal investigation of an unlawful practice of a profession oroccupation administered by the Department of Professional and OccupationalRegulation, only after the Department of Professional and OccupationalRegulation exhausts all other means of obtaining such information; and (iii)provide to any representative of a condominium unit owners' association,property owners' association or real estate cooperative association, or tothe owner of property governed by any such association, the names andaddresses of parties having a security interest in real property governed byany such association; however, such information shall be released only uponwritten request stating the reason for such request, which reason shall belimited to proposing or opposing changes to the governing documents of theassociation, and any information received by any person under this subsectionshall be used only for the reason stated in the written request. Thetreasurer or other local assessing official may require any person requestinginformation pursuant to clause (iii) of this subsection to pay the reasonablecost of providing such information. Any person to whom tax information isdivulged pursuant to this subsection shall be subject to the prohibitions andpenalties prescribed herein as though he were a tax official.

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionsof this title, the treasurer or other collector of taxes for a county, cityor town is authorized to provide information relating to any motor vehicle,trailer or semitrailer obtained by such treasurer or collector in the courseof performing his duties to the commissioner of the revenue or otherassessing official for such jurisdiction for use by such commissioner orother official in performing assessments.

This section shall not be construed to prohibit a local tax official fromimprinting or displaying on a motor vehicle local license decal the year,make, and model and any other legal identification information about theparticular motor vehicle for which that local license decal is assigned.

E. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, state agencies and any otheradministrative or regulatory unit of state government shall divulge to theTax Commissioner or his authorized agent, upon written request, the name,address, and social security number of a taxpayer, necessary for theperformance of the Commissioner's official duties regarding theadministration and enforcement of laws within the jurisdiction of theDepartment of Taxation. The receipt of information by the Tax Commissioner orhis agent which may be deemed taxpayer information shall not relieve theCommissioner of the obligations under this section.

F. Additionally, it shall be unlawful for any person to disseminate, publish,or cause to be published any confidential tax document which he knows or hasreason to know is a confidential tax document. A confidential tax document isany correspondence, document, or tax return that is prohibited from beingdivulged by subsection A, B, C, or D of this section. This prohibition shallnot apply if such confidential tax document has been divulged or disseminatedpursuant to a provision of law authorizing disclosure. Any person violatingthe provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

(Code 1950, 58-46; 1972, cc. 311, 565; 1974, c. 134; 1978, c. 161; 1980, c.49; 1983, c. 372; 1984, cc. 319, 675; 1985, c. 78; 1988, c. 544; 1989, cc.99, 327; 1990, c. 678; 1992, c. 386; 1993, cc. 41, 519; 1994, c. 493; 1995,c. 38; 1996, cc. 614, 784, 793, 919, 988; 1997, cc. 517, 705, 787; 2000, cc.717, 880, 901; 2001, c. 84; 2002, cc. 64, 747; 2003, cc. 757, 758, 884; 2004,cc. 166, 515, 536, 582, 594; 2005, cc. 863, 884; 2006, cc. 31, 159, 590.)

58.1-3. (Effective January 1, 2007 - see Editor's notes) Secrecy ofinformation; penalties.

A. Except in accordance with a proper judicial order or as otherwise providedby law, the Tax Commissioner or agent, clerk, commissioner of the revenue,treasurer, or any other state or local tax or revenue officer or employee, orany person to whom tax information is divulged pursuant to 58.1-2712.2, orany former officer or employee of any of the aforementioned offices shall notdivulge any information acquired by him in the performance of his duties withrespect to the transactions, property, including personal property, income orbusiness of any person, firm or corporation. Such prohibition specificallyincludes any copy of a federal return or federal return information requiredby Virginia law to be attached to or included in the Virginia return. Thisprohibition shall apply to any reports, returns, financial documents or otherinformation filed with the Attorney General pursuant to the provisions ofArticle 6 ( 3.1-336.3 et seq.) of Chapter 18 of Title 3.1. Any personviolating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 2misdemeanor. The provisions of this subsection shall not be applicable,however, to:

1. Matters required by law to be entered on any public assessment roll orbook;

2. Acts performed or words spoken or published in the line of duty under thelaw;

3. Inquiries and investigations to obtain information as to the process ofreal estate assessments by a duly constituted committee of the GeneralAssembly, or when such inquiry or investigation is relevant to its study,provided that any such information obtained shall be privileged;

4. The sales price, date of construction, physical dimensions orcharacteristics of real property, or any information required for buildingpermits;

5. Copies of or information contained in an estate's probate tax return,filed with the clerk of court pursuant to 58.1-1714, when requested by abeneficiary of the estate or an heir at law of the decedent;

6. Information regarding nonprofit entities exempt from sales and use taxunder 58.1-609.11, when requested by the General Assembly or any dulyconstituted committee of the General Assembly.

B. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit thepublication of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification ofparticular reports or returns and the items thereof or the publication ofdelinquent lists showing the names of taxpayers who are currently delinquent,together with any relevant information which in the opinion of the Departmentmay assist in the collection of such delinquent taxes. This section shall notbe construed to prohibit a local tax official from disclosing whether aperson, firm or corporation is licensed to do business in that locality anddivulging, upon written request, the name and address of any person, firm orcorporation transacting business under a fictitious name. Additionally,notwithstanding any other provision of law, the commissioner of revenue isauthorized to provide, upon written request stating the reason for suchrequest, the Tax Commissioner with information obtained from local taxreturns and other information pertaining to the income, sales and property ofany person, firm or corporation licensed to do business in that locality.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionof this title, the Tax Commissioner is authorized to: (i) divulge taxinformation to any commissioner of the revenue, director of finance or othersimilar collector of county, city or town taxes who, for the performance ofhis official duties, requests the same in writing setting forth the reasonsfor such request; (ii) provide to the Commissioner of the Department ofSocial Services, upon written request, information on the amount of income,filing status, number and type of dependents, and whether a federal earnedincome tax credit has been claimed as reported by persons on their stateincome tax returns who have applied for public assistance or social servicesbenefits as defined in 63.2-100; (iii) provide to the chief executiveofficer of the designated student loan guarantor for the Commonwealth ofVirginia, upon written request, the names and home addresses of those personsidentified by the designated guarantor as having delinquent loans guaranteedby the designated guarantor; (iv) provide current address information uponrequest to state agencies and institutions for their confidential use infacilitating the collection of accounts receivable, and to the clerk of acircuit or district court for their confidential use in facilitating thecollection of fines, penalties and costs imposed in a proceeding in thatcourt; (v) provide to the Commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission,after entering into a written agreement, such tax information as may benecessary to facilitate the collection of unemployment taxes and overpaidbenefits; (vi) provide to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, upon enteringinto a written agreement, such tax information as may be necessary tofacilitate the collection of state and local taxes and the administration ofthe alcoholic beverage control laws; (vii) provide to the Director of theState Lottery Department such tax information as may be necessary to identifythose lottery ticket retailers who owe delinquent taxes; (viii) provide tothe Department of the Treasury for its confidential use such tax informationas may be necessary to facilitate the location of owners and holders ofunclaimed property, as defined in 55-210.2; (ix) provide to the StateCorporation Commission, upon entering into a written agreement, such taxinformation as may be necessary to facilitate the collection of taxes andfees administered by the Commission; (x) provide to the Executive Director ofthe Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission for its confidentialuse such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate the collection ofthe motor vehicle fuel sales tax; (xi) provide to the Director of theDepartment of Charitable Gaming such tax information as may be necessary toidentify those applicants for registration as a supplier of charitable gamingsupplies who have not filed required returns or who owe delinquent taxes;(xii) provide to the Department of Housing and Community Development for itsconfidential use such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate theadministration of the remaining effective provisions of the Enterprise ZoneAct ( 59.1-270 et seq.), and the Enterprise Zone Grant Program ( 59.1-538et seq.); (xiii) provide current name and address information to privatecollectors entering into a written agreement with the Tax Commissioner, fortheir confidential use when acting on behalf of the Commonwealth or any ofits political subdivisions; however, the Tax Commissioner is not authorizedto provide such information to a private collector who has used ordisseminated in an unauthorized or prohibited manner any such informationpreviously provided to such collector; (xiv) provide current name and addressinformation as to the identity of the wholesale or retail dealer that affixeda tax stamp to a package of cigarettes to any person who manufactures orsells at retail or wholesale cigarettes and who may bring an action forinjunction or other equitable relief for violation of Chapter 10.1,Enforcement of Illegal Sale or Distribution of Cigarettes Act; (xv) provideto the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, upon entering into a writtenagreement, such tax information as may be necessary to facilitate thecollection of unpaid wages under 40.1-29; (xvi) provide to the Director ofthe Department of Human Resource Management, upon entering into a writtenagreement, such tax information as may be necessary to identify personsreceiving workers' compensation indemnity benefits who have failed to reportearnings as required by 65.2-712; and (xvii) provide to any commissioner ofthe revenue, director of finance, or any other officer of any county, city,or town performing any or all of the duties of a commissioner of the revenueand to any dealer registered for the collection of the Communications Salesand Use Tax, a list of the names, business addresses, and dates ofregistration of all dealers registered for such tax. The Tax Commissioner isfurther authorized to enter into written agreements with duly constituted taxofficials of other states and of the United States for the inspection of taxreturns, the making of audits, and the exchange of information relating toany tax administered by the Department of Taxation. Any person to whom taxinformation is divulged pursuant to this section shall be subject to theprohibitions and penalties prescribed herein as though he were a tax official.

D. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionof this title, the commissioner of revenue or other assessing official isauthorized to (i) provide, upon written request stating the reason for suchrequest, the chief executive officer of any county or city with informationfurnished to the commissioner of revenue by the Tax Commissioner relating tothe name and address of any dealer located within the county or city who paidsales and use tax, for the purpose of verifying the local sales and use taxrevenues payable to the county or city; (ii) provide to the Department ofProfessional and Occupational Regulation for its confidential use the name,address, and amount of gross receipts of any person, firm or entity subjectto a criminal investigation of an unlawful practice of a profession oroccupation administered by the Department of Professional and OccupationalRegulation, only after the Department of Professional and OccupationalRegulation exhausts all other means of obtaining such information; and (iii)provide to any representative of a condominium unit owners' association,property owners' association or real estate cooperative association, or tothe owner of property governed by any such association, the names andaddresses of parties having a security interest in real property governed byany such association; however, such information shall be released only uponwritten request stating the reason for such request, which reason shall belimited to proposing or opposing changes to the governing documents of theassociation, and any information received by any person under this subsectionshall be used only for the reason stated in the written request. Thetreasurer or other local assessing official may require any person requestinginformation pursuant to clause (iii) of this subsection to pay the reasonablecost of providing such information. Any person to whom tax information isdivulged pursuant to this subsection shall be subject to the prohibitions andpenalties prescribed herein as though he were a tax official.

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A or B or any other provisionsof this title, the treasurer or other collector of taxes for a county, cityor town is authorized to provide information relating to any motor vehicle,trailer or semitrailer obtained by such treasurer or collector in the courseof performing his duties to the commissioner of the revenue or otherassessing official for such jurisdiction for use by such commissioner orother official in performing assessments.

This section shall not be construed to prohibit a local tax official fromimprinting or displaying on a motor vehicle local license decal the year,make, and model and any other legal identification information about theparticular motor vehicle for which that local license decal is assigned.

E. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, state agencies and any otheradministrative or regulatory unit of state government shall divulge to theTax Commissioner or his authorized agent, upon written request, the name,address, and social security number of a taxpayer, necessary for theperformance of the Commissioner's official duties regarding theadministration and enforcement of laws within the jurisdiction of theDepartment of Taxation. The receipt of information by the Tax Commissioner orhis agent which may be deemed taxpayer information shall not relieve theCommissioner of the obligations under this section.

F. Additionally, it shall be unlawful for any person to disseminate, publish,or cause to be published any confidential tax document which he knows or hasreason to know is a confidential tax document. A confidential tax document isany correspondence, document, or tax return that is prohibited from beingdivulged by subsection A, B, C, or D of this section. This prohibition shallnot apply if such confidential tax document has been divulged or disseminatedpursuant to a provision of law authorizing disclosure. Any person violatingthe provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

(Code 1950, 58-46; 1972, cc. 311, 565; 1974, c. 134; 1978, c. 161; 1980, c.49; 1983, c. 372; 1984, cc. 319, 675; 1985, c. 78; 1988, c. 544; 1989, cc.99, 327; 1990, c. 678; 1992, c. 386; 1993, cc. 41, 519; 1994, c. 493; 1995,c. 38; 1996, cc. 614, 784, 793, 919, 988; 1997, cc. 517, 705, 787; 2000, cc.717, 880, 901; 2001, c. 84; 2002, cc. 64, 747; 2003, cc. 757, 758, 884; 2004,cc. 166, 515, 536, 582, 594; 2005, cc. 863, 884; 2006, cc. 31, 159, 590, 780.)