Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 53 Part 1.djvu/42

 CODIFICATION OF INTERNAL REVENUE LAWS (d) INSPECTION BY COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS.- (1) COMMITTEES ON WAYS AND MEANS AND FINANCE.- (A) The Secretary and any officer or employee of the Treasury Department, upon request from the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Fi- nance of the Senate, or a select committee of the Senate or House specially authorized to investigate returns by a resolution of the Senate or House, or a joint committee so authorized by con- current resolution, shall furnish such committee sitting in execu- tive session with any data of any character contained in or shown by any return. (B) Any such committee shall have the right, acting directly as a committee, or by or through such examiners or agents as it may designate or appoint, to inspect any or all of the returns at such times and in such manner as it may determine. (C) Any relevant or useful information thus obtained may be submitted by the committee obtaining it to the Senate or the House, or to both the Senate and the House, as the case may be. (2) JOINT COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL REVENUE TAXATION.-The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation shall have the same right to obtain data and to inspect returns as the Committee on Ways and Means or the Committee on Finance, and to submit any relevant or useful information thus obtained to the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Committee on Ways and Means, or the Committee on Finance. The Committee on Ways and Means or the Committee on Finance may submit such information to the House or to the Senate, or to both the House and the Senate, as the case may be. (e) INSPECTION IN COLLECTOR's OFFICE OF LIST OF TAXPAYERS.-The Commissioner shall as soon as practicable in each year cause to be prepared and made available to public inspection in such manner as he may determine, in the office of the collector in each internal revenue district and in such other places as he may determine, lists containing the name and the post-office address of each person mak- ing an income-tax return in such district. (f) PENALTIES FOR DISCLOSING INFORMATION.- (1) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND OTIIER PERSONS.- It shall be unlaw- ful for any collector, deputy collector agent, clerk, or other officer or employee of the United States to divulge or to make known in any manner whatever not provided by law to any person the amount or source of income, profits, losses, expenditures, or any particular thereof, set forth or disclosed in any income return, or to permit any income return or copy thereof or any book contain- ing any abstract or particulars thereof to be seen or examined by any person except as provided by law; and it shall be unlawful for any person to print or publish in any manner whatever not pro- vided by law any income return, or any part thereof or source of income, profits, losses, or expenditures appearing in any income return; and any offense against the foregoing provision shall be a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court; and if the offender be an officer or employee of the United States he shall be dismissed from office or discharged from employment. (2) STATE EMPLOYEEs. -Any officer, employee, or agent of any State or political subdivision, who divulges (except as authorized in paragraph 2 of subsection (b), or when called upon to testify in any judicial or administrative proceeding to which the State or political subdivision, or such State or local official, body, or commission, as such, is a party) any information acquired by him through an inspection permitted him or another under paragraph 30

�