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Committee advances bill to let Legislature access incentive data; panel narrows look-back date
Summary
The House Finance and Taxation Committee gave a do-pass-as-amended recommendation to Senate Bill 2038, which clarifies when the tax commissioner may disclose information about taxpayers receiving certain tax incentives. The committee amended the bill to permit disclosure for incentives claimed or granted after Dec. 31, 2024.
Representative Jared Hegert, chair of the interim tax committee, presented Senate Bill 2038 to clarify the tax commissioner’s authority to disclose information about tax incentives — specifically adding exemptions to the types of incentives that may be shared with legislative management for review.
Nut graf: The bill narrows a confidentiality gap that the interim tax committee encountered while trying to obtain data on incentives. Committee members debated whether to make the change retroactive and ultimately amended the bill to cover incentives claimed or granted after Dec. 31, 2024.
Representative Hegert said the measure was intended “to close that loophole” so future oversight bodies could get consistent data on exemptions, credits and deductions. Charles Dendy, attorney counsel for the Office of State Tax Commissioner, testified about confidentiality constraints for certain tax types, noting that sales and income tax records are among the most confidential and that disclosure has been limited historically to protect taxpayer expectations of privacy.
Committee members discussed whether to make the change retroactive. Representative Steiner asked whether disclosures from earlier years could be obtained; Dendy answered that the change would be a policy decision for the committee and that prior taxpayers might have expected confidentiality. Representative Doctor described the bill as a step forward but said it did not fully close every information gap.
The committee accepted an amendment changing the effective date language to cover incentives “claimed or granted after December 31, 2024.” Representative Doctor moved a do-pass as amended; the motion passed on a roll call of 13 yes, 0 no, and 1 absent.
Ending: The committee’s action does not itself disclose any records; the change would allow the tax commissioner to provide more-complete information to legislative management and future oversight reviews going forward. The committee discussed, but did not require, additional steps to make the change retroactive.
