Commonwealth Numbered Acts

TAXATION LAWS AMENDMENT (TAX FILE NUMBERS) ACT 1988 No. 97 of 1988 - SECT 27

27. The Principal Act is amended by inserting after section 8X the following
sections: Unauthorised access to taxation records

"8XA. A person shall not knowingly take action for the purpose of obtaining
information held under or for the purposes of a taxation law unless the person
takes the action in the course of exercising powers or performing functions
under or in relation to a taxation law.
Penalty: $10,000 or imprisonment for 2 years, or both. Secrecy

"8XB. (1) Subject to subsection (3), a person shall not, except to the extent
required or permitted by a taxation law or reasonably necessary in order to
comply with an obligation imposed by a taxation law, directly or indirectly:

   (a)  make a record of any taxation information relating to another person;
        or

   (b)  divulge or communicate to another person any taxation information
        relating to a third person; being information disclosed to or obtained
        by the person in breach of a provision of a taxation law (including
        this provision).
Penalty: $10,000 or imprisonment for 2 years, or both.

"(2) Without limiting subsection (1), a person shall be taken to have obtained
taxation information in breach of a provision of a taxation law if:

   (a)  the information relates to the affairs of another person;

   (b)  the form or circumstances in which the information was obtained would
        have led a reasonable person to believe that:

        (i)    in the case of information contained in a document-the document
               had come from an office of the Commissioner or a Deputy
               Commissioner; or

        (ii)   in any other case-the information had come from the records of
               the Commissioner or from an officer; and

   (c)  the information was obtained by the person in circumstances that gave
        the person no reasonable cause to believe that the communication of
        the information to the person was authorised by a taxation law or by a
        person acting in accordance with such a law.

"(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to the divulging or communicating of
information to an officer (within the meaning of a taxation secrecy provision)
for a purpose connected with the administration of a taxation law.

"(4) Except where it is necessary to do so for the purpose of carrying into
effect the provisions of a taxation law, a person shall not be required:

   (a)  to produce in court any document containing information in relation to
        which subsection (1) applies; or

   (b)  to divulge or communicate to a court a matter or thing with respect to
        information in relation to which subsection (1) applies.

"(5) This section does not apply to a person in respect of information or a
document if the person is an officer within the meaning of a taxation secrecy
provision and that provision refers to the information or document.

"(6) In this section:
'taxation information' means information with respect to a person's affairs,
being information that is, or at any time has been, in the possession of the
Commissioner;
'taxation secrecy provision' means a provision of a taxation law that purports
to prohibit the communication, divulging or publication of information or the
production of, or the publication of the contents of, a document.".