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VIRGINIA
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
ADVISORY COUNCIL
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
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AO-27-01
May
31, 2001
Ms. RoseMarie Dorer
Fairfax, Virginia
The staff of
the Freedom of Information Advisory Council is authorized
to issue advisory opinions. The ensuing staff advisory opinion
is based solely upon the information presented in your email
of April 2, 2001, and your phone conversation of April 23,
2001.
Dear Ms. Dorer:
You have asked whether
the Commissioner of the Revenue ("the Commissioner") may provide
the legal name of a business to a member of the public under
the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). You indicate
that you asked your local Commissioner for this information
concerning a particular business. You were told that all information
maintained by the Commissioner was confidential. You ask if
the Code of Virginia declares this information to be open
to the public.
Subsection A of
§ 2.1-342 of the Code of Virginia states that [e]xcept
as otherwise specifically provided by law, all public records
shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizens of
the Commonwealth. As a result, one generally does not
need to locate a citation in the Code that declares specific
records to be open in order to access those records. Instead,
unless a record is specifically exempted from FOIA, it is
presumed open.
Subdivision A. 2.
of § 2.1-342.01 exempts [s]tate income, business, and estate
tax returns, personal property tax returns, scholastic and
confidential records held pursuant to § 58.1-3. Subsection
A of § 58.1-3, in turn, requires that state and local tax
or revenue officers keep confidential information acquired
in the performance of his duties with respect to the transactions,
property, income or business of any person, firm or corporation.
However, subsection B of § 58.1-3 helps to clarify the intent
of this prohibition, and states that the section should
not be construed to prohibit a local tax official from disclosing
whether a person, firm or corporation is licensed to do business
in that locality and divulging, upon written request, the
name and address of any person, firm or corporation transacting
business under a fictitious name. Upon analysis of this
provision, the Attorney General of Virginia has opined that
subsection B would also allow a locality to disclose the type
of business licensed and its phone number.1 The
Attorney General has further opined that the prohibition in
subsection A only embraces financial information...which
may be reasonably necessary to permit the commissioner of
the revenue to make a proper determination of the amount of
tax due and owing. Any other information held by the Commissioner
that is not descriptive of the business, property, finances
or transactions of a taxpayer would not be subject to the
exemption, and would be open for public inspection.2
In conclusion, while
many of the records maintained by the Commissioner of Revenue
likely fall under the exemption set forth at subsection A
of § 58.1-3, there is no blanket exemption prohibiting access
to any document maintained in that office. Furthermore, the
Commissioner is required by law to provide you with the legal
name and address of any business in the locality upon written
request.
Thank you for contacting
this office. I hope that I have been of assistance.
Sincerely,
Maria J.K. Everett
Executive Director
1
1982-83 Op. Atty. Gen. Va. 727.
2 1981-82
Op. Atty. Gen. Va. 377a. See also Virginia Freedom of Information
Advisory Council AO-11 (2001).
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