Cap. 406 Art. 56Official secrecy.

(1) Except as may be necessary for the purposes of this

Act, or where the Commissioner otherwise directs, every person having any official duty or being employed in the administration of this Act shall regard and deal with all documents and information relating to this Act as secret and confidential.

(2) No person appointed under or employed in carrying out the provisions of this Act shall be required to produce any document or to divulge any matter coming under his notice in the performance of his duties under this Act except as may be lawfully required for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act, or for the purpose or in the course of any appeal made in accordance with this Act or a prosecution for any offence against any of the provisions of this Act, or in the course of an investigation or a prosecution for any relevant offence or during any judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings when ordered by a court or tribunal to disclose information:

Provided that the provisions of this article shall not prejudice the international obligations that the Commissioner or any person referred to in this sub-article may have, including confidentiality obligations under arrangements made under article 76 of the Income Tax Act.

(2A) For the purposes of this article, "relevant offence" means a criminal offence, not being one of an involuntary nature, consisting of any act or omission which if committed in Malta, or in corresponding circumstances, would constitute an offence liable to the punishment of imprisonment or of detention for a term of one (1) year or more.

(3) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this article, the Commissioner may permit the Auditor General or any officer authorised by the Auditor General to have access to any records or documents as may be necessary for the performance of his official duties and for this purpose the Auditor General and any such authorised officer shall be deemed to be a person employed in the administration of this Act.

(4) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this article or of any other law, the Commissioner shall furnish to the competent authority designated under the Eco-Contribution Act such information being information obtained by the Commissioner for any of the purposes of this Act.

(5) Nothing contained in this article shall, after the accession date, prevent the disclosure by the Commissioner, of any information that is required to be disclosed in terms of Council Regulation (EU) No. 904/2010 or of any such other Council Regulation as may be prescribed.

(6) For the purposes of this article, any information disclosed to the Commissioner by the fiscal authorities of another Member State in terms of any Council Regulation referred to in sub-article

(5) shall be treated as information relating to and obtained for the purposes of this Act.