N.Y. General City Model Law § 146
Except in accordance with proper judicial order or as otherwise provided by law, it shall be unlawful for the director of finance, the department of finance of the city, any officer or employee of the department of finance of the city, any person engaged or retained by such department on an independent contract basis, or any person who, pursuant to this section, is permitted to inspect any report or return or to whom a copy, an abstract or a portion of any report or return is furnished, or to whom any information contained in any report or return is furnished, to divulge or make known in any manner the amount of income or any particulars set forth or disclosed in any report or return required under this title. The officers charged with the custody of such reports and returns shall not be required to produce any of them or evidence of anything contained in them in any action or proceeding in any court, except on behalf of the city in an action or proceeding under the provisions of this title or in any other action or proceeding involving the collection of a tax due under this title to which the city is a party or a claimant, or on behalf of any party to any action or proceeding under the provisions of this title when the reports, returns or facts shown thereby are directly involved in such action or proceeding, in any of which events the court may require the production of, and may admit in evidence, so much of said reports, returns or of the facts shown thereby, as are pertinent to the action or proceeding and no more. The director of finance may, nevertheless, publish a copy or a summary of any determination or decision rendered after the hearing required under section one hundred thirty-seven of this title. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the delivery to a taxpayer or his duly authorized representative of a certified copy of any return or report filed in connection with his tax or to prohibit the publication of statistics so classified as to prevent the identification of particular reports or returns and the items thereof, or the inspection by the corporation counsel or other legal representatives of the city of the report or return of any taxpayer who shall bring action to set aside or review the tax based thereon, or against whom an action or proceeding under this title has been recommended by the director of finance or the corporation counsel or has been instituted, or the inspection of the reports or returns required under this title by the duly designated officers or employees of the city for purposes of an audit under this title or an audit authorized by the act enacting this title. Reports and returns shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the director of finance orders them to be destroyed. Any violation of the provisions of this subdivision shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars 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 city or the state, he shall be dismissed from office and be incapable of holding any public office in the city or the state for a period of five years thereafter.
N.Y. General City Model Law § 146