Section 48-2-15. Confidential information

   (a) Except as otherwise provided in this Code section, information secured by the commissioner incident to the administration of any tax shall be confidential and privileged. Neither the commissioner nor any officer or employee of the department shall divulge or disclose any such confidential information obtained from the department's records or from an examination of the business of any taxpayer to any person other than the commissioner, an officer or employee of the department, an officer of the state or local government entitled in his official capacity to have access to such information, or the taxpayer.

(b) This Code section shall not:

   (1) Be construed to prevent the use of confidential information as evidence before any state or federal court in the event of litigation involving tax liability of any taxpayer;

   (2) Be deemed to prevent the print or electronic publication of statistics so arranged as not to reveal information respecting an individual taxpayer;

   (3) Apply in any way whatsoever to any official finding of the commissioner with respect to any assessment or any information properly entered upon an assessment roll or other public record;

   (4) Affect any information which in the regular course of business is by law made the subject matter of a public document in any federal or state office or in any local office in this state; or

   (5) Apply to information, records, and reports required and obtained under Article 1 of Chapter 9 of this title, which requires distributors of motor fuels to make reports of the amounts of motor fuels sold and used in each county by the distributor, or under Article 2 of Chapter 9 of this title, relating to road tax on motor carriers.

(c) The provisions of this Code section shall not apply with respect to Chapter 7 of this title, relating to income taxation.

(d) Notwithstanding this Code section, the commissioner, upon request by resolution of the governing authority of any municipality of this state having a population of 350,000 or more according to the United States decennial census of 1970 or any future such census, shall furnish to the finance officer or taxing official of the municipality any pertinent tax information from state tax returns to be used by those officials in the discharge of their official duties. Any information so furnished shall retain, in the hands of the local officials, its privileged and confidential nature to the same extent and under the same conditions as that information is privileged and confidential in the hands of the commissioner. The commissioner may make a nominal charge for any information so furnished, not to exceed the actual cost of furnishing the information. Nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to prevent the use of the information as evidence in any state or federal court in the event of litigation involving any municipal or county tax liability of a taxpayer.

(e) This Code section shall not be construed to prohibit persons or groups of persons other than employees of the department from having access to tax information when necessary to conduct research commissioned by the department or where necessary in connection with the processing, storage, transmission, and reproduction of such tax information; the programming, maintenance, repair, testing, and procurement of equipment; and the providing of other services for purposes of tax administration. Any such access shall be pursuant to a written agreement with the department providing for the handling, permitted uses, and destruction of such tax information, requiring security clearance checks for such persons or groups of persons similar to those required of employees of the department, and including such other terms and conditions as the department may require to protect the confidentiality of the tax information to be disclosed. Any person who divulges or makes known any tax information obtained under this subsection shall be subject to the same civil and criminal penalties as those provided for divulgence of information by employees of the department.

Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 77, § 12; Ga. L. 1945, p. 160, § 1; Ga. L. 1969, p. 1137, § 1; Code 1933, § 91A-212, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1979, p. 5, §§ 8, 9; Ga. L. 1981, p. 1857, § 4; Ga. L. 1991, p. 303, § 1; Ga. L. 2006, p. 200, § 2/HB 1310; Ga. L. 2010, p. 838, § 11/SB 388; Ga. L. 2011, p. 297, § 1/HB 346.