Tax return information: research: poverty.

Existing law provides that it is a misdemeanor for the Franchise Tax Board or specified state employees to disclose or make known any information in a return, report, or document filed under income tax laws but authorizes the Franchise Tax Board to disclose this information to specified agencies for specified purposes. Existing law makes an unwarranted disclosure or use of the information by those agencies a misdemeanor. This bill would additionally authorize the Franchise Tax Board to disclose, upon request, anonymized, deidentified data from state returns or return information to a bona fide research body immediately concerned with conducting research relating to poverty, measuring poverty and its effects, and efforts to ameliorate poverty. The bill would authorize information disclosed pursuant to that provision to be used only for conducting and producing research studies relating to poverty, measuring poverty and its effects, and efforts to ameliorate poverty. The bill would prohibit that information from being used to identify any taxpayer and would provide that an unauthorized disclosure or use of the information disclosed pursuant to these provisions by a bona fide research body, or the employees and officers thereof, is a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.