Public Act 093-0835
 
HB4076 Enrolled LRB093 15213 BDD 40809 b

    AN ACT concerning taxes.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Illinois Income Tax Act is amended by
changing Section 917 as follows:
 
    (35 ILCS 5/917)  (from Ch. 120, par. 9-917)
    Sec. 917. Confidentiality and information sharing.
    (a) Confidentiality. Except as provided in this Section,
all information received by the Department from returns filed
under this Act, or from any investigation conducted under the
provisions of this Act, shall be confidential, except for
official purposes within the Department or pursuant to official
procedures for collection of any State tax or pursuant to an
investigation or audit by the Illinois State Scholarship
Commission of a delinquent student loan or monetary award or
enforcement of any civil or criminal penalty or sanction
imposed by this Act or by another statute imposing a State tax,
and any person who divulges any such information in any manner,
except for such purposes and pursuant to order of the Director
or in accordance with a proper judicial order, shall be guilty
of a Class A misdemeanor. However, the provisions of this
paragraph are not applicable to information furnished to (i)
the Department of Public Aid, State's Attorneys, and the
Attorney General for child support enforcement purposes and
(ii) a licensed attorney representing the taxpayer where an
appeal or a protest has been filed on behalf of the taxpayer.
If it is necessary to file information obtained pursuant to
this Act in a child support enforcement proceeding, the
information shall be filed under seal.
    (b) Public information. Nothing contained in this Act shall
prevent the Director from publishing or making available to the
public the names and addresses of persons filing returns under
this Act, or from publishing or making available reasonable
statistics concerning the operation of the tax wherein the
contents of returns are grouped into aggregates in such a way
that the information contained in any individual return shall
not be disclosed.
    (c) Governmental agencies. The Director may make available
to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States or his
delegate, or the proper officer or his delegate of any other
state imposing a tax upon or measured by income, for
exclusively official purposes, information received by the
Department in the administration of this Act, but such
permission shall be granted only if the United States or such
other state, as the case may be, grants the Department
substantially similar privileges. The Director may exchange
information with the Illinois Department of Public Aid and the
Department of Human Services (acting as successor to the
Department of Public Aid under the Department of Human Services
Act) for the purpose of verifying sources and amounts of income
and for other purposes directly connected with the
administration of this Act and the Illinois Public Aid Code.
The Director may exchange information with the Director of the
Department of Employment Security for the purpose of verifying
sources and amounts of income and for other purposes directly
connected with the administration of this Act and Acts
administered by the Department of Employment Security. The
Director may make available to the Illinois Industrial
Commission information regarding employers for the purpose of
verifying the insurance coverage required under the Workers'
Compensation Act and Workers' Occupational Diseases Act.
    The Director may make available to any State agency,
including the Illinois Supreme Court, which licenses persons to
engage in any occupation, information that a person licensed by
such agency has failed to file returns under this Act or pay
the tax, penalty and interest shown therein, or has failed to
pay any final assessment of tax, penalty or interest due under
this Act. The Director may make available to any State agency,
including the Illinois Supreme Court, information regarding
whether a bidder, contractor, or an affiliate of a bidder or
contractor has failed to file returns under this Act or pay the
tax, penalty, and interest shown therein, or has failed to pay
any final assessment of tax, penalty, or interest due under
this Act, for the limited purpose of enforcing bidder and
contractor certifications. For purposes of this Section, the
term "affiliate" means any entity that (1) directly,
indirectly, or constructively controls another entity, (2) is
directly, indirectly, or constructively controlled by another
entity, or (3) is subject to the control of a common entity.
For purposes of this subsection (a), an entity controls another
entity if it owns, directly or individually, more than 10% of
the voting securities of that entity. As used in this
subsection (a), the term "voting security" means a security
that (1) confers upon the holder the right to vote for the
election of members of the board of directors or similar
governing body of the business or (2) is convertible into, or
entitles the holder to receive upon its exercise, a security
that confers such a right to vote. A general partnership
interest is a voting security.
    The Director may make available to any State agency,
including the Illinois Supreme Court, units of local
government, and school districts, information regarding
whether a bidder or contractor is an affiliate of a person who
is not collecting and remitting Illinois Use taxes, for the
limited purpose of enforcing bidder and contractor
certifications.
    The Director may also make available to the Secretary of
State information that a corporation which has been issued a
certificate of incorporation by the Secretary of State has
failed to file returns under this Act or pay the tax, penalty
and interest shown therein, or has failed to pay any final
assessment of tax, penalty or interest due under this Act. An
assessment is final when all proceedings in court for review of
such assessment have terminated or the time for the taking
thereof has expired without such proceedings being instituted.
For taxable years ending on or after December 31, 1987, the
Director may make available to the Director or principal
officer of any Department of the State of Illinois, information
that a person employed by such Department has failed to file
returns under this Act or pay the tax, penalty and interest
shown therein. For purposes of this paragraph, the word
"Department" shall have the same meaning as provided in Section
3 of the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971.
    (d) The Director shall make available for public inspection
in the Department's principal office and for publication, at
cost, administrative decisions issued on or after January 1,
1995. These decisions are to be made available in a manner so
that the following taxpayer information is not disclosed:
        (1) The names, addresses, and identification numbers
    of the taxpayer, related entities, and employees.
        (2) At the sole discretion of the Director, trade
    secrets or other confidential information identified as
    such by the taxpayer, no later than 30 days after receipt
    of an administrative decision, by such means as the
    Department shall provide by rule.
    The Director shall determine the appropriate extent of the
deletions allowed in paragraph (2). In the event the taxpayer
does not submit deletions, the Director shall make only the
deletions specified in paragraph (1).
    The Director shall make available for public inspection and
publication an administrative decision within 180 days after
the issuance of the administrative decision. The term
"administrative decision" has the same meaning as defined in
Section 3-101 of Article III of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Costs collected under this Section shall be paid into the Tax
Compliance and Administration Fund.
    (e) Nothing contained in this Act shall prevent the
Director from divulging information to any person pursuant to a
request or authorization made by the taxpayer, by an authorized
representative of the taxpayer, or, in the case of information
related to a joint return, by the spouse filing the joint
return with the taxpayer.
(Source: P.A. 93-25, eff. 6-20-03.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.

Effective Date: 7/29/2004