Requests for Information and Documents of the Board of Tax Appeals

Requests for Information and Documents of the Board of Tax Appeals. A. Information concerning the Board can be obtained by calling or writing the Board or the Executive Director and/or from the Board’s website (www.bta.ms.gov). B. Any request for inspection, copying and/or other reproduction of any public record of the Board shall be made in writing to the Executive Director, the custodian of the records of the Board. Within seven (7) working days from the date of the receipt of the request, the Executive Director shall provide the public record requested or provide the person making the request with an explanation as to why the public record cannot be produced within this seven (7) working day period. If the reason the public record requested was not produced is because the record is exempt from such disclosure or production, this explanation shall also state the specific exemption upon which the Executive Director relies in determining that the record requested is exempt. C. Where it is determined that the public record requested should be disclosed or produced and the person requesting the record has pre-paid the cost of this production in sufficient time to allow for the location and copying of the record to be produced, the Executive Director shall, if possible, produce the public record requested within seven (7) working days from receipt of the request, and if not, within fourteen (14) working days from receipt of the request unless additional time is agreed to by the person requesting the public record. If the person requesting the public record has not pre-paid the cost of production within sufficient time to locate and copy the public record within this fourteen (14) working day period, the public record will be produced within a reasonable time after receiving the pre-payment of the cost of the production. D. Information and records of the Board concerning administrative appeals from orders of the Review Board and from orders of administrative hearing officers are prohibited from being divulged and are exempt from the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983, Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-1 et seq., except as provided in Miss. Code Ann. § 27-77-15. E. Information and public records of the Board concerning administrative appeals other than those from orders of the Review Board and from orders of administrative hearing officers, including, but not limited to, appeals regarding ABC matters under Miss. Code Ann. § 67-1-72, denials of objections to the Department’s rejections of homestead exemption applications under Miss. Code Ann. § 27-33-41, objections to ad valorem assessments under Miss. Code Ann. § 27-35-309, § 27-35-311, § 27-35- 325, § 27-35-517 or § 27-35-703 and appeals by counties from the decision of the Department in regard to its examination of recapitulations of the ad valorem rolls of counties under Miss. Code Ann. § 27-35-113, are subject to the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983, Miss. Code Ann. § 27-61-1 et seq. and thereby subject to being disclosed, inspected, copied and/or mechanically reproduced as provided by that act and in accordance to the procedures set out in subsections B and C above. F. The records of the Board shall be retained in accordance with the record retention schedules approved by the state records committee for such documents. Upon expiration of the applicable time period set out in the approved record retention schedules, the records shall be destroyed, or when appropriate, transferred to the Mississippi State Archives. G. The fees for inspection, copying or reproducing records of the Board are as follows: 1) If the record requested is maintained by the Board as a paper document, the fees for inspection and copying will be as follows: (a) $2.50 for locating each paper document requested; (b) $0.50 for each page of the paper document to be copied; (c) The cost of postage or other delivery charges if the copy of the document is to be mailed through the US postal service or delivered through another delivery service (FedEx, UPS, etc.). 2) If the record requested is maintained by the Board in an electronic form, including, but not limited to, any audio and/or video recording of a hearing maintained on tape, cd, dvd or on any other storage media, the fee to be charged will be the actual cost incurred by the Board to retrieve, produce, copy and provide the record, including, but not limited to, the following: (a) Any software or programming costs; (b) Any charges from the Department of Information Technology Services; (c) Any charges for services provided by a private provider of information technology, computer and/or audio visual services; (d) Operation cost of computer and/or printer; (e) Paper cost if printed and provided on paper; (f) Cost of the storage media (tape, cd, dvd, etc.) to which the record is copied; (g) Time spent by a Board employee to retrieve, produce, copy and/or print the record; and (h) The cost of postage or other delivery charges if the record is to be mailed through the US postal service or delivered through another delivery service (FedEx, UPS, etc.). 3) If the person requesting the record also requests that a record be certified as true and correct by the Executive Director, the fee for such certification shall be $1.00 for each record so certified. H. The Board or the Executive Director shall waive the fee set out above for any request for records by another state agency, including, but not limited to, the State Auditor, the Department or the ABC Division.