The House Ways and Means Committee voted on Tuesday to make former President Donald Trump’s tax returns public. With six years of tax returns released many expect a lot to be revealed about Trump’s business dealings and personal wealth.
The panel voted along party lines on whether or not to release the returns. The information is set to be released as early as Wednesday, which incidentally is also the day when the House Jan. 6 committee is going to release its final report with all of its findings on the U.S. Capitol attack. IT will also be one of the last days of Democratic control of the House as in January the Republicans will take over.
On Tuesday the committee released a 29-page report which summarized their investigation into the IRS policy for auditing the tax returns of presidents and vice presidents. According to the committee’s findings the IRS had in large part not followed its internal requirements regarding the auditing process. This was after the IRS had selected Trump’s returns for an audit which was not completed by the time Trump had left the White House.
The report notes that it is clear that “during the prior Administration,” “the mandatory audit program was not a priority and was not provided with the resources needed to ensure compliance by the former President.” According to an internal IRS memo: “‘With over 400 flow-thru returns reported on the Form 1040, it is not possible to obtain the resources available to examine all potential issues.'”
A separate 39-page report was also released on Tuesday night in which Trump’s tax forms and business entities were also summarized.
