(1) No present or former commissioner or employee of the department, present or former member of a county board of assessment appeals, present or former property valuation administrator or employee, present or former secretary or employee of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, former secretary or employee of the Revenue Cabinet, or any other person, shall intentionally and without authorization inspect or divulge any information acquired by him or her of the affairs of any person, or information regarding the tax schedules, returns, or reports required to be filed with the department or other proper officer, or any information produced by a hearing or investigation, insofar as the information may have to do with the affairs of the person’s business.
(2) The prohibition established by subsection (1) of this section shall not extend to:

Terms Used In Kentucky Statutes 131.190

  • Action: includes all proceedings in any court of this state. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • any other state: includes any state, territory, outlying possession, the District of Columbia, and any foreign government or country. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • City: includes town. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of revenue. See Kentucky Statutes 131.010
  • Department: means the Department of Revenue. See Kentucky Statutes 131.010
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Federal: refers to the United States. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Owner: when applied to any animal, means any person having a property interest in such animal. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes territories, outlying possessions, and the District of Columbia. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Taxpayer: means any person required or permitted by law or administrative regulation to perform any act subject to the administrative jurisdiction of the department including the following:
    (a) File a report, return, statement, certification, claim, estimate, declaration, form, or other document. See Kentucky Statutes 131.010
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Year: means calendar year. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010

(a) Information required in prosecutions for making false reports or returns of property for taxation, or any other infraction of the tax laws;
(b) Any matter properly entered upon any assessment record, or in any way made a matter of public record;
(c) Furnishing any taxpayer or his or her properly authorized agent with information respecting his or her own return;
(d) Testimony provided by the commissioner or any employee of the department in any court, or the introduction as evidence of returns or reports filed with the department, in an action for violation of state or federal tax laws or in any action challenging state or federal tax laws;
(e) Providing an owner of unmined coal, oil or gas reserves, and other mineral or energy resources assessed under KRS § 132.820, or owners of surface land under which the unmined minerals lie, factual information about the owner’s property derived from third-party returns filed for that owner’s property, under the provisions of KRS § 132.820, that is used to determine the owner’s assessment. This information shall be provided to the owner on a confidential basis, and the owner shall be subject to the penalties provided in KRS
131.990(2). The third-party filer shall be given prior notice of any disclosure of information to the owner that was provided by the third-party filer;
(f) Providing to a third-party purchaser pursuant to an order entered in a foreclosure action filed in a court of competent jurisdiction, factual information related to the owner or lessee of coal, oil, gas reserves, or any other mineral resources assessed under KRS § 132.820. The department may promulgate an administrative regulation establishing a fee schedule for the provision of the information described in this paragraph. Any fee imposed shall not exceed the greater of the actual cost of providing the information or ten dollars ($10);
(g) Providing information to a licensing agency, the Transportation Cabinet, or the Kentucky Supreme Court under KRS § 131.1817;
(h) Statistics of gasoline and special fuels gallonage reported to the department
under KRS § 138.210 to KRS § 138.448;
(i) Providing any utility gross receipts license tax return information that is necessary to administer the provisions of KRS § 160.613 to KRS § 160.617 to applicable school districts on a confidential basis;
(j) Providing documents, data, or other information to a third party pursuant to an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(k) Providing information to the Legislative Research Commission under:
1. KRS § 139.519 for purposes of the sales and use tax refund on building materials used for disaster recovery;
2. KRS § 141.436 for purposes of the energy efficiency products credits;
3. KRS § 141.437 for purposes of the ENERGY STAR home and the
ENERGY STAR manufactured home credits;
4. KRS § 141.383 for purposes of the film industry incentives;
5. KRS § 154.26-095 for purposes of the Kentucky industrial revitalization tax credits and the job assessment fees;
6. KRS § 141.068 for purposes of the Kentucky investment fund;
7. KRS § 141.396 for purposes of the angel investor tax credit;
8. KRS § 141.389 for purposes of the distilled spirits credit;
9. KRS § 141.408 for purposes of the inventory credit;
10. KRS § 141.390 for purposes of the recycling and composting credit;
11. KRS § 141.3841 for purposes of the selling farmer tax credit;
12. KRS § 141.4231 for purposes of the renewable chemical production tax credit;
13. KRS § 141.524 for purposes of the Education Opportunity Account
Program tax credit;
14. KRS § 141.398 for purposes of the development area tax credit;
15. KRS § 139.516 for the purposes of the sales and use tax exemption on the commercial mining of cryptocurrency; and
16. KRS § 141.419 for purposes of the decontamination tax credit.
(3) The commissioner shall make available any information for official use only and on a confidential basis to the proper officer, agency, board or commission of this state, any Kentucky county, any Kentucky city, any other state, or the federal government, under reciprocal agreements whereby the department shall receive similar or useful information in return.
(4) Access to and inspection of information received from the Internal Revenue Service is for department use only, and is restricted to tax administration purposes. Information received from the Internal Revenue Service shall not be made available to any other agency of state government, or any county, city, or other state, and shall not be inspected intentionally and without authorization by any present secretary or employee of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, commissioner or employee of the department, or any other person.
(5) Statistics of crude oil as reported to the department under the crude oil excise tax requirements of KRS Chapter 137 and statistics of natural gas production as reported to the department under the natural resources severance tax requirements of KRS Chapter 143A may be made public by the department by release to the Energy and Environment Cabinet, Department for Natural Resources.
(6) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, beginning with mine-map submissions for the 1989 tax year, the department may make public or divulge only those portions of mine maps submitted by taxpayers to the department pursuant to KRS Chapter 132 for ad valorem tax purposes that depict the boundaries of mined- out parcel areas. These electronic maps shall not be relied upon to determine actual boundaries of mined-out parcel areas. Property boundaries contained in mine maps required under KRS Chapters 350 and 352 shall not be construed to constitute land surveying or boundary surveys as defined by KRS § 322.010 and any administrative regulations promulgated thereto.
Effective: July 14, 2022
History: Amended 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 212, sec. 55, effective July 14, 2022. — Amended
2021 Ky. Acts ch. 122, sec. 4, effective July 1, 2021; ch. 156, sec. 20, effective June
29, 2021; ch. 167, sec. 21, effective June 29, 2021; and ch. 203, sec. 10, effective June 29, 2021. — Amended 2020 Ky. Acts ch. 91, sec. 21, effective April 15, 2020. — Amended 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 196, sec. 1, effective June 27, 2019. — Amended 2018
Ky. Acts ch. 171, sec. 102, effective April 14, 2018; and ch. 207, sec. 102, effective April 27, 2018. — Amended 2013 Ky. Acts ch. 119, sec. 3, effective July 1, 2013. — Amended 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 24, sec. 92, effective July 15, 2010; and ch. 75, sec. 14, effective April 7, 2010. — Amended 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 85, sec. 126, effective June
20, 2005; ch. 123, sec. 14, effective June 20, 2005; and ch. 184, sec. 5, effective June
20, 2005. — Amended 2003 Ky. Acts ch. 87, sec. 1, effective June 24, 2003. — Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 503, sec. 2, effective July 14, 2000. — Amended 1998
Ky. Acts ch. 134, sec. 3, effective July 15, 1998. — Amended 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 326, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1994; and ch. 508, sec. 44, effective July 15, 1994. — Amended 1982 Ky. Acts ch. 47, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1982. — Amended 1978
Ky. Acts ch. 233, sec. 8, effective June 17, 1978. — Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 163, sec. 1. — Amended 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 64, secs. 1 and 3. — Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat. sec. 4114h-15.
Legislative Research Commission Note (6/27/2019). This statute was amended in 2019
Ky. Acts ch. 151, sec. 5 (HB 354) and ch. 196, sec. 1 (HB 458). Although HB 354 was enacted, 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 196, sec. 16 (HB 458) repealed certain sections of that prior Act, including Section 5, and directed the Reviser of Statutes to not codify them. Therefore, the amendment to this statute in 2019 Ky. Acts ch. 151, sec. 5, was not codified.
Legislative Research Commission Note (6/29/2017). Under the authority of KRS
7.136(1), a reference to “KRS § 131.990(2)” in subsection (1)(b)5. of this statute has been changed to “KRS § 131.990(1)” by the Reviser of Statutes following the enactment of 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 74, sec. 67, which deleted subsection (1) of KRS
131.990 and renumbered the subsequent subsections, but did not amend this statute to conform.