Sponsor Statement for HB 94

Confidentiality of Tax Information Submitted to a Municipality

HB 94 allows local governments to classify certain financial information submitted to local governments as confidential, if requested to do so by the taxpayer.

Under state law, income information submitted to the state by a taxpayer as part of a tax return or report is held confidential. AS 43.05.230 prohibits officers or agents of the state from disclosing "the amount of income or the particulars" listed in a return. However, when the same, or similar information is submitted to a local government for the purposes of a tax assessment there is no such protection. HB 94 extends the protection for income information submitted to the state, to also protect information submitted to local governments.

HB 94 does not change, alter, amend, or in any way restrict any aspect of the authority a local government has to assess a tax. It simply says that once the financial information is provided to the local taxing authority, it must be held confidentially if the taxpayer makes such a request.

Several states, including Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming currently have similar restrictions.

Under certain circumstances, general financial information about public companies is required to be made public by federal law. However, information on specific properties or projects is generally restricted as it could be used against a company by competitors. It is for this reason that Alaska should join the other "resource extraction" states in offering these same protections.