Request By:
Susan G. Leavenworth
Legal Services Section
Revenue Cabinet
P.O. Box 423
Frankfort, Kentucky 40602
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl T. Miller, Jr., Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Thomas L. Ferreri, Attorney for the Independent Insurance Agents of Kentucky, has written the Attorney General a letter dated February 17, 1983 which we are treating as an Open Records Appeal pursuant to KRS 61.880. By letter dated February 16, 1983 you denied Mr. Ferreri's request to inspect certain public records in the custody of the Department of Revenue and sent the Attorney General a copy of your letter.
Mr. Ferreri describes the requested records as follows:
"Any and all adjusted cost reports that have been filed with the Department of Revenue by the group self-insureds operating in the state of Kentucky. These adjusted cost reports are required to be filed, as I understand it, by the group self-insureds for workers' compensation purposes in March of each year, pursuant to KRS 342.475."
Mr. Ferreri requests the records for the years 1979-83.
In your letter denying the request you state that the reason is the provision of KRS 131.190(1) which provides, in part, as follows:
"No present or former commissioner or employee of the Department of Revenue, . . . or any other person, shall divulge any information acquired by him 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 persons business."
We note that the form furnished by the Department of Revenue for the self-insured employers adjusted cost report of workers' compensation (NO. 74A114) includes the following statement: "All information shall be kept confidential pursuant to KRS 131.190."
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that you acted in accordance with the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870 to 61.884, in denying Mr. Ferreri's request to inspect and copy the described records. As you stated in your letter KRS 131.190(1) makes tax records and reports to the Department of Revenue concerning taxes confidential. That specific statute dealing with the subject prevails over any provisions of the Kentucky Open Records Law and the open records statute also expressly exempts from its open records requirements:
"Public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the general assembly." KRS 61.878(1)(j).
The Department of Revenue is not only allowed a policy of keeping such records confidential but is mandated by a statute with penal provisions to keep such records confidential. KRS 131.190(1); 131.990(3).
As directed by statute a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester who has the right to challenge it in court.