§ 78. 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 administrator or any other officer or
employee of the department, bureau or other agency of the city
administering the tax imposed by this local law, any person engaged or
retained by such administrator, department, bureau or other agency or 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 local law. The administrator or any other officer and
employee 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 local law
or in any other action or proceeding involving the collection of a tax
due under this local law 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 local law 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; except as provided in
subdivision (e) of section seventy-seven. The administrator may,
nevertheless, publish a copy or a summary of any determination or
decision rendered after the hearing required under section sixty-nine of
this local law. 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 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 local law has been recommended by the administrator. Reports
and returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the
administrator orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the
provisions 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 the administrator or
any other officer or employee of the city, 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.