§ 146. Secrecy requirement and penalties for violation. Except in
accordance with proper judicial order or as otherwise provided by law,
it shall be unlawful for the director of finance, the department of
finance of the city, any officer or employee of the department of
finance of the city, any person engaged or retained by such department
on an independent contract basis, or any person who, pursuant to this
section, is permitted to inspect any report or return or to whom a copy,
an abstract or a portion of any report or return is furnished, or to
whom any information contained in any report or return is furnished, to
divulge or make known in any manner the amount of income or any
particulars set forth or disclosed in any report or return required
under this title. The officers charged with the custody of such reports
and 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 city in an action or proceeding under the
provisions of this title or in any other action or proceeding involving
the collection of a tax due under this title to which the city is a
party or a claimant, or on behalf of any party to any action or
proceeding under the provisions of this title when the reports, returns
or facts shown thereby are directly involved in such action or
proceeding, in any of which events the court may require the production
of, and may admit in evidence, so much of said reports, returns or of
the facts shown thereby, as are pertinent to the action or proceeding
and no more. The director of finance may, nevertheless, publish a copy
or a summary of any determination or decision rendered after the hearing
required under section one hundred thirty-seven of this title. Nothing
herein shall be construed to prohibit the delivery to a taxpayer or his
duly authorized representative of a certified copy of any return or
report filed in connection with his tax or 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
by the corporation counsel or other legal representatives of the city of
the report or 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 title has been recommended by the director of finance or the
corporation counsel or has been instituted, or the inspection of the
reports or returns required under this title by the duly designated
officers or employees of the city for purposes of an audit under this
title or an audit authorized by the act enacting this title. Reports and
returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the
director of finance orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the
provisions of this subdivision shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both,
at the discretion of the court, and if the offender be an officer or
employee of the city or the state, he shall be dismissed from office and
be incapable of holding any public office in the city or the state for a
period of five years thereafter.