§ 88. Secrecy required of official; penalty for violation. 1. 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, or any person who, pursuant to this section, is
permitted to inspect any report or return, 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, 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 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 or 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 formal hearing provided for in section
eighty of this part. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the
delivery to a taxpayer or its duly authorized representative of a copy
of any report filed by it, nor 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 which shall bring action to set aside or review
the tax based thereon, or against which an action or proceeding under
this title or under any local law of the city imposed as authorized by
the act authorizing the adoption of 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 of any taxpayer
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 authorizing
the adoption of this title; and nothing in this part shall be construed
to prohibit the publication of the percentage of capital stock, gross
premiums or net income of any corporation which may be required to be
allocated within the city for purposes of the tax imposed by any of the
named parts.

2. Any offense against subdivision one of this section 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 state or city, he shall be
dismissed from office and be incapable of holding any public office in
the city or this state for a period of five years thereafter.

3. Notwithstanding any provisions of this section, the director of
finance may permit the secretary of the treasury of the United States or
his delegates, or the proper officer of this or any other state charged
with tax administration, or the authorized representative of either such
officer, to inspect the returns or reports filed under any of the named
parts, or may furnish to such officer or his authorized representative
an abstract of any such return or report or supply information
concerning an item contained in any such return or report, or supply him
with information concerning an item contained in any such return or
report, or disclosed by an investigation of tax liability under any of
the named parts, but such permission shall be granted or such
information furnished to such officer or his representative only if the
laws of the United States or of such state, as the case may be, grant
substantially similar privileges to the director of finance and such
information is to be used for tax purposes only; and provided further
the director of finance may furnish to the secretary of the treasury of
the United States or his delegates or to the tax commission of the state
of New York or its delegates such returns or reports filed under any of
the named parts and other tax information, as he may consider proper,
for use in court actions or proceedings under the internal revenue code
or the tax law of the state of New York, whether civil or criminal,
where a written request therefor has been made to the director of
finance by the secretary of the treasury or by such tax commission or by
their delegates, provided the laws of the United States or the laws of
the state of New York grant substantially similar powers to the
secretary of the treasury or his delegates or to such tax commission or
its delegates. Where the director of finance has so authorized use of
returns, reports or other information in such actions or proceedings,
officers and employees of the department of finance may testify in such
actions or proceedings in respect to such returns, reports or other
information.