- The House Committee could vote to release Trump’s tax returns or a summary or not to release them.
- Republicans have warned releasing them could jeopardize the privacy of every American’s taxes.
- Democrats have argued the tax returns could help guide lawmakers in writing tax legislation.
A key House panel is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss releasing Donald Trump’s tax returns, a move Republicans warned could jeopardize the privacy of every American’s taxes but that Democrats argue could help guide tax law-making.
The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., got the returns from the Treasury Department a few weeks ago after a years-long legal battle. He first asked the IRS in 2019 for copies of six years of Trump’s personal returns as well as those for his companies and a revocable trust.
Neal has had little to say publicly about the potential release of Trump’s taxes, but scheduled the meeting at 3 p.m. ET Tuesday, when members of the Democrat-led committee will decide what to do.
Will Trump’s taxes become public?:Here’s what to expect if a House panel votes to release them.
“Nearly four years ago, the Ways and Means Committee set out to fulfill our legislative and oversight responsibilities, and evaluate the Internal Revenue Service’s mandatory audit program,” Neal said in a written statement. “As affirmed by the Supreme Court, the law was on our side, and on Tuesday, I will update the members of the Committee.”
Here’s what’s happening now:
How can the House committee release Trump’s personal tax returns?
As a legal matter, attorneys cite federal law, which allows certain House and Senate committees to obtain the returns of any taxpayer, including the sitting president. The committee can then submit the information to the House or Senate for purposes of passing legislation.
In this case, committee members said they sought Trump’s records as part of an effort to write new laws regarding tax audits.
Watchdogs: Release Trump’s tax returns
Public interest groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington are urging lawmakers to release Trump’s taxes, noting that Congress secured President Richard Nixon’s tax records in 1973, during the height of the Watergate scandal.
Tax returns should be made public “especially when you have a president in Trump who continued to operate an international business while president,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for CREW. “The American people need to know where his income was coming from.”
Whose tax-release precedent is it?
Committee Republicans are accusing Democrats of considering a frightful precedent that could be used against anybody.
“We urge Democrats, in their rush to target former President Trump, not to unleash this dangerous new political weapon on the American people,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the committee’s top Republican.
When Republicans led the committee in 2014, they considered releasing confidential tax information. And then voted to release it. At the time, they were investigating IRS delays on applications for tax-exempt status from conservative, Tea Party groups.
They voted to release documents that contained taxpayer information as part of a referral to the Justice Department recommending prosecution of an IRS official, Lois Lerner, for allegedly targeting conservative groups for increased scrutiny, causing the delays. Justice officials declined to prosecute, saying they found evidence of mismanagement at the IRS but not criminal wrongdoing.
What’s in Donald Trump’s tax returns?
Charles Rettig, the California-based tax law expert Trump tapped as the nation’s IRS commissioner, offered predictions in a Forbes essay he wrote in 2016, two years before his nomination.
“Teams of sophisticated tax advisers were likely engaged throughout Trump’s career to assure the absence of any ‘bombshell’ within the returns. His returns might actually be somewhat unremarkable but for the fact they are the returns of Donald Trump,” wrote Rettig.
“For wealthy individuals, individual tax returns sometimes only provide a brief financial overview linked to numerous other conclusions and entities. To fully understand the financial status of Trump, one would likely need to see returns for multiple years, the work-papers for the individual returns and the returns for numerous related entities, something that is unlikely to happen.”
Could the Senate jump in?
The Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have had little time to analyze Trump’s tax returns. Moreover, Republican control of the House starts in January, and GOP lawmakers have no plans to pursue the issue. But there’s a chance the Democrat-controlled Senate might, Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, said Tuesday.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairs the Senate Committee on Finance. And he’s been on record supporting the Ways and Means effort. In a July 2021 statement issued after the Department of Justice said the House committee should have access to the Trump tax returns, Wyden said he would “consult with the Ways and Means Committee and consider the (Senate) Finance Committee’s next steps.”
As the Finance Committee leader, “Sen. Wyden has all the same powers” to seek and review tax returns as part of Congress’ oversight role as Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the chair of House Ways and Means panel, said Rosenthal. “He may want to wait and see what happens with Ways and Means first.”
– Kevin McCoy
Democrat blasts Trump ahead of tax-release meeting
Ahead of the meeting Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., lashed out at the former president’s “major tax avoidance.”
“It is pretty clear that Donald Trump and his organization have a major tax avoidance issue. To put it mildly,” he told CNN. “So I think there’s clearly a lot of smoke here and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Boyle is one of two dozen Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, in addition to Neal. There are 17 Republicans. Ways and Means is the oldest congressional committee and the lead tax-writing panel in the House.
– Kevin McCoy
Maybe some small surprises?
Robert McKenzie, a tax law expert who’s of counsel to the Saul Ewing LLP law firm in Chicago, said tax returns sometimes contain surprising finds.
After former House Speaker Newt Gingrich released his returns in 2012, McKenzie and other lawyers told USA TODAY Gingrich used a popular tax strategy that enabled him to avoid paying Medicare tax on most of his 2010 income.
A spokesman for Gingrich, who was a presidential contender at the time, said the tax filing was handled properly and legally.
Trump prepares for tax revelations
Trump has repeatedly opposed any release of his tax information, calling the entire process political. In a recent Truth Social post, he claimed that the records will show his business has “lots of cash, some of the greatest assets anywhere in the World, and very little debt. Also, strong on deductions and depreciation.”
“You will be seeing these numbers soon, but not all from my tax returns, which show relatively little,” he said.
Trump also claimed, “You can’t learn much from tax returns, but it is illegal to release them if they are not yours!”
