Budget Amendment ID: FY2016-S3-163

GOV 163

Office of the State Auditor

Messrs. Eldridge, Montigny and Lewis, Ms. O'Connor Ives and Ms. Chang-Diaz moved that the proposed new text be amended by inserting after section XX, the following new section:-

“SECTION XX.  Section 21 of chapter 62C of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting in subsection (b), after paragraph (27), the following new paragraph:-

(28)  notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, including without limitation section 12 of chapter 11 and section 20 of chapter 62C, the state auditor’s access to tax returns and related documents, but excluding information provided to the commonwealth by other federal and state tax agencies where such access is precluded by law or agreement, necessary for the audit of tax expenditures, as defined by section 1 of chapter 29 of the General Laws, provided that the identity of any specific taxpayer, any audit workpapers associated with any specific taxpayer, and any tax return or document filed by a specific taxpayer, except as provided under section 89 of chapter 62C, shall be deemed to be confidential information and not a public record, shall not be included in any published audit report, and shall be maintained as confidential information in accordance with government auditing standards as established by the Comptroller General of the United States, and provided further that any such audit shall be conducted for the sole purposes of evaluating the performance of particular tax expenditures and the oversight of tax expenditures by agencies responsible for such oversight, and not for the purpose of auditing any specific taxpayer.