BILL ANALYSIS S.B. 1492 By: Shapiro Finance 4-28-95 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Currently, county and municipal governments audit hotels' tax records to determine if hotels are remitting the local portion of the state hotel occupancy tax. The Comptroller's Office also audits these records. The duplication of effort occurs because state law prohibits sharing certain tax information between the state and local governments. Local governments could streamline auditing functions by having access to the comptroller's hotel tax information. PURPOSE As proposed, S.B. 1492 authorizes the comptroller or the attorney general to disclose to a municipality or county certain information derived from an audit to ascertain compliance with the payment of the hotel occupancy tax. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 111.006, Tax Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d), as follows: (a) Makes a conforming change. (d) Authorizes the comptroller or the attorney general to disclose to a municipality or county information obtained by the comptroller or attorney general during an examination of the taxpayers' records or employees, if the information was derived from an examination performed for the purpose of ascertaining compliance with the hotel occupancy tax imposed under Chapter 156; the municipality or county makes written request for the information; the municipality or county making the request has imposed a local hotel occupancy tax authorized by Chapter 351 or 352, as applicable; the municipality or county uses the information only for the enforcement or administration of its local hotel occupancy tax; and to the extent consistent with the use authorized by Subdivision (4), the municipality or county keeps the information confidential as provided by this section. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1995. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.