Public Act 102-0061
 
HB0368 EnrolledLRB102 03880 RJF 13895 b

    AN ACT concerning finance.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Illinois State Auditing Act is amended by
changing Section 6-1 as follows:
 
    (30 ILCS 5/6-1)  (from Ch. 15, par. 306-1)
    Sec. 6-1. Effect on other laws. The powers and duties of
the Auditor General under this Act and the system of audits
established by this Act are in addition to any other powers,
duties or audits required or authorized by law.
    Where records or information are classified as
confidential, by or pursuant to law, such records or
information shall be disclosed to the Office of the Auditor
General as necessary and to the extent required for the
performance of an authorized post audit. Federal tax
information shall only be provided in accordance with federal
law and regulation applicable to the safeguarding of federal
tax information. However, only a payroll employee of the
Office of the Auditor General, specifically designated in
writing by the Auditor General, may receive confidential
income tax records.
    Confidential records or information disclosed to the
Office of the Auditor General shall be subject to the same
legal confidentiality and protective restrictions in the
Office of the Auditor General as such records and information
have in the hands of the official authorized custodian. Any
penalties applicable to the officially authorized custodian or
his employees for the violation of any confidentiality or
protective restrictions applicable to such records or
information shall also apply to the officers, employees,
contractors, and agents of the Office of the Auditor General.
    The Office of the Auditor General may not publish any
confidential information or records in any report, including
data and statistics, if such information as published is
directly or indirectly matchable to any individual.
    Inside the Office of the Auditor General, confidential
records or information may be used only for official purposes.
    Any officer, employee, contractor, or agent of the Office
of the Auditor General who violates any legal confidentiality
or protective restriction governing any records or information
shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor unless a greater
penalty is otherwise provided by law.
    Where this Act expressly governs or grants authority for
regulations to govern other auditing procedures, this Act
supersedes all other statutes to the contrary. To the extent
that this Act conflicts with another statute, this Act
prevails.
    Except as provided in this Section, this Act does not
supersede or repeal by implication any other statute.
(Source: P.A. 82-414.)
 
    Section 10. 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 Healthcare and Family
Services (formerly 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. The
furnishing upon request of the Auditor General, or his or her
authorized agents, for official use of returns filed and
information related thereto under this Act is deemed to be an
official purpose within the Department within the meaning of
this Section.
    (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 Department of Healthcare and Family
Services 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, the Illinois
Public Aid Code, and any other health benefit program
administered by the State. 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 Workers' Compensation 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 exchange information with the Illinois Department
on Aging for the purpose of verifying sources and amounts of
income for purposes directly related to confirming eligibility
for participation in the programs of benefits authorized by
the Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities Property Tax
Relief and Pharmaceutical Assistance Act. The Director may
exchange information with the State Treasurer's Office and the
Department of Employment Security for the purpose of
implementing, administering, and enforcing the Illinois Secure
Choice Savings Program Act. The Director may exchange
information with the State Treasurer's Office for the purpose
of administering the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act or
successor Acts.
    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. 99-143, eff. 7-27-15; 99-571, eff. 7-15-16;
100-47, eff. 8-11-17; 100-863, eff. 8-14-18.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.

Effective Date: 7/9/2021