January 11, 2012

Ms. Ruth H. Soucy

Deputy General Counsel for Open Records

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

P.O. Box 13528

Austin, Texas 78711-3528

OR2012-00551

Dear Ms. Soucy:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 442024 (Comptroller ID# 7687365907).

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (the "comptroller") received a request for "a listing of permit numbers that file the State Tax Return on a Quarterly Basis." You claim the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Initially, we note the requestor seeks only a list of taxpayer permit numbers fitting the criteria specified in the request. Thus, the taxpayers' names, addresses, cities, states, and zip codes are not responsive to the request. This decision does not address the public availability of the non-responsive information, and that information need not be released.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information made confidential by other statutes, such as section 151.027 of the Tax Code, which provides, in relevant part:

(a) Information in or derived from a record, report, or other instrument required to be furnished under this chapter is confidential and not open to public inspection, except for information set forth in a lien filed under this title or a permit issued under this chapter to a seller and except as provided by Subsection (c) of this section.

Tax Code § 151.027(a). Section 151.027(a) excepts from public disclosure information that is contained within or derived from records, reports, or other instruments that a taxpayer must file under chapter 151 of the Tax Code. In this instance, the responsive information consists of a list containing the taxpayer permit numbers of businesses required to file sales and use tax returns on a quarterly basis. You state the responsive list of permit numbers consists of information extracted from these required tax returns. You inform us sales and use taxpayers are required by chapter 151 to furnish to the comptroller sales tax returns reporting total taxable sales and total sales and/or use tax amounts. You explain the determination of whether a sales taxpayer must file on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis is based on the total sales and/or use tax amounts reported by each taxpayer. See 34 T.A.C. § 3.286(g)(1)-(3) (specifying which taxpayers may file monthly, quarterly, or yearly based on total sales and/or use tax to report); see also Tax Code §§ 151.401, .405. You argue the requested list of taxpayer permit numbers is confidential under section 151.027 because it is information derived from reports required to be furnished to the comptroller and its release would reveal which taxpayers are required to file quarterly or are no longer required to file quarterly based on taxable sales and reported sales and use tax amounts. We note, however, the requestor did not ask for, and the responsive information does not include, any information related to the actual taxable sales amounts or sales and use tax amounts reported by any of the listed taxpayers. Because the responsive list encompasses taxpayers who fall within a range of taxable sales and sales tax amounts, the responsive information does not reveal the actual taxable sales and sales tax amounts contained within any individual taxpayer's required filings. As such, we determine the requested list of taxpayer permit numbers is not made confidential by section 151.027(a) of the Tax Code and the comptroller may not withhold the information under section 552.101 of the Government Code on that basis. As you have not claimed any other exceptions to disclosure, the comptroller must release the requested list of taxpayer permit numbers.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Cynthia G. Tynan

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CGT/dls

Ref: ID# 442024

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and, therefore, does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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