On Friday, a House committee will release six years’ worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns, lifting the veil on financial documents that the former president fought for years to keep secret.
The Democratic-controlled Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives voted last week to disclose the returns with certain sensitive information redacted, including Social Security numbers and contact information. Their release coincides with the dying days of the Democrats’ House majority and as Trump’s fellow Republicans prepare to seize control of the chamber.
The committee acquired Trump’s personal and company tax documents from 2015 to 2020 as part of an investigation into what it said in a Dec. 20 report was the Internal Revenue Service’s failure to conduct timely audits of Trump during his presidency, as mandated by the tax agency’s procedure.
Trump’s finances have been cloaked in mystery and intrigue since the 1980s, when he was a rising Manhattan real estate developer. The release of these documents raises the possibility of additional revelations. Now that Trump has launched a third bid for the White House, the election results may be of increased importance.
From 2015 through 2020, the committee obtained Trump’s personal and business tax returns.
AP
Trump’s tax returns are likely to provide the clearest picture yet of his income as president.
Trump, who was known for building skyscrapers and hosting reality television before he won the presidency, broke political norms by refusing to release his tax returns during his presidential campaign, though he did disclose limited information about his holdings and income on required disclosure forms.
Trump has instead bragged about his fortune in the annual financial documents he provides to banks to get loans and to financial publications to justify his position among the world’s billionaires.
Trump’s finances, which have been cloaked in mystery and intrigue since his days as a Manhattan real estate developer in the 1980s, may be subject to new discoveries.
AP
Since then, Trump’s longstanding accounting firm has disavowed the statements, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched a lawsuit saying Trump and his Trump Organization overstated asset values on the statements as part of a multiyear fraud scheme. Trump and his business deny any wrongdoing.
It will not be the first time that Trump’s tax returns are scrutinized. In October 2018, The New York Times published a Pulitzer Prize-winning story based on leaked tax data indicating that Trump got at least $413 million from his father’s real estate assets, the majority of which came from “tax dodges” during the 1990s.
A second series published in 2020 revealed that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018, as well as no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years due to his generally negative net worth.
The Ways and Means Committee hinted in its report from last week that the Trump administration may have disregarded a post-Watergate provision necessitating audits of a president’s tax returns.
Rep. Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, requested information from the IRS regarding Trump’s 2016 tax returns on April 3, 2019 — more than two years into his presidency. The IRS audit of Trump’s 2016 tax returns did not begin until April 3, 2019 — more than two years into his presidency.
In comparison, President Joe Biden was audited for the tax years of 2020 and 2021, according to White House spokesman Andrew Bates. In each of his eight years in office, former President Barack Obama was audited, according to a spokesman.
On January 6, 2021, violent protesters backing President Donald Trump were observed assaulting the Capitol in Washington.
AP
Multiple red flags were highlighted in a companion report by the neutral Joint Committee on Taxation of Congress regarding Trump’s tax returns, including his carryover losses, deductions related to conservation and charity donations, and loans to his children that could be taxable gifts.
In response, the House passed a bill mandating audits of any president’s income tax returns. Republicans vehemently opposed the idea, expressing worry that a law mandating audits would violate the privacy of taxpayers and lead to audits being used for political gain.
With a new Republican-led House taking office in January, the legislation, which was approved largely along partisan lines, has little chance of becoming law soon. Rather, it is viewed as a beginning point for future measures to strengthen presidential oversight.
Republicans have maintained that Democrats will regret the move after Republicans assume power next week, and they have warned that the committee’s new Republican chair will be under pressure to seek and release the tax returns of other notable individuals.
Since Richard Nixon, every president and major-party candidate has willingly made at least a summary of their tax returns public. As a candidate and as president, Trump defied this norm by frequently claiming that his tax returns were “under audit” and could not be released.
Trump’s attorneys were repeatedly refused in their efforts to prevent the Ways and Means Committee from viewing his tax returns. In August, a panel of three federal appeals court judges confirmed a lower court judgment permitting the committee access.
Trump has asserted repeatedly that his tax returns are “under audit” and so cannot be released.
AP
Trump’s attorneys lost twice before the Supreme Court in attempts to prevent the Manhattan district attorney’s office from obtaining Trump’s tax papers as part of its probe into his business operations.
Trump’s longtime accountant, Donald Bender, testified in the recent Manhattan criminal trial of the Trump Organization that Trump has claimed losses on his tax returns every year for the past decade, including roughly $700 million in 2009 and $200 million in 2010.
Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump’s personal tax returns, stated that Trump’s reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from a number of Trump Organization entities.
The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud earlier this month for assisting executives in evading taxes on company-paid benefits such as residences and fancy cars.
»Trump’s tax returns will be revealed on Friday, concluding a decades-long battle«