- The House Committee voted to release Trump’s tax returns
- 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 House committee voted Tuesday to publicly release some of Donald Trump's tax returns, despite Republican threats to retaliate against President Joe Biden and other Democrats.
It is not known exactly when the Trump tax documents will become available. Lawmakers said that personal information must be redacted from the documents, and the process could take at least a couple of days.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee said releasing the Trump tax returns is in the public interest, and part of an effort to improve auditing procedures at the Internal Revenue Service.
"This was never about being punitive. It was never about being malicious," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the Democratic committee chairman, after a party-line vote following a closed-door debate that lasted more than four hours.
Trump did not immediately comment on the committee vote.
Republicans denounced the move as a purely political precedent and said it could be used in the future to target many Americans.
"Regrettably, the deed is done,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Tex., the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
The committee issued reports defending their investigation. Neal and others pointed to evidence that IRS did not audit Trump during his first two years in office, as is standard operating procedure Neal said it began an audit of Trump only after Congress requested Trump's tax returns in 2019, and it has not been completed.
Neal and other lawmakers said Trump tax returns will be attached to a report to the full House regarding IRS auditing; sensitive personal information must still be redacted from the documents, including Social Security numbers and street addresses.
The panel had been seeking the returns since 2019 but only received them a few weeks ago, giving members little time to review them and draw conclusions that could influence tax legislation before Republicans take over the House in January.
Committee on Ways and Means Members on both sides of the aisle debated the final step in a years-long fight to obtain Trump's tax returns despite objections and legal challenges by the former president.
Experts are watching closely.
“More investigation is needed,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute. “There’s not a lot of substantiation” on tax losses claimed by Trump, “and not a lot of information about the IRS handling of the audits” on Trump’s returns.
Will Trump's taxes become public?:Here's what to expect if a House panel votes to release them.
Here's what's happening now:
Could a release of Trump’s tax returns set a precedent for others?
House Ways and Means Committee Republicans would have authority under Congress’ oversight authority to seek President Joe Biden’s tax returns, said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute.
An IRS law enables federal lawmakers on congressional tax committees to seek presidential tax returns for a review of how the IRS conducts mandatory tax audits of the president. Ways and Means Democrats used the law to seek Trump’s returns. However, GOP lawmakers likely would not be authorized to cast a wide net, said Rosenthal.
“I don’t think (releasing Trump’s returns) opens the door for Republicans to ask for (presidential son) Hunter Biden’s tax returns,” he said. “Hunter Biden isn’t in the government.”
– Kevin McCoy
Democrats: No big tax bills for Trump
Democrats did not disclose a lot of details about what exactly is in the Trump tax returns they are releasing. But there was an overarching takeaway: Trump didn’t pay so much in taxes.
“Donald Trump had big deductions, big credits, and big losses,” Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett said after voting to release the materials, “But seldom a big tax bill."
News reports over the years have disclosed that Trump paid no federal taxes at all in some years, often because of income losses reported in prior years. Doggett skewered the Internal Revenue Service for not conducting audits sooner.
"The success of our inquiry underscores the failure of Trump’s IRS to hold him accountable by failing to initiate timely, thorough Presidential audits – none of which have yet been completed," Doggett said. "Trump claimed tens of millions of dollars in losses and credits without the type of substantiation an ordinary taxpayer would likely provide."
– David Jackson, Donovan Slack
Trump aide blasts vote to release his taxes: ‘unprecedented leak by lameduck Democrats’
Donald Trump hasn't commented yet, but his campaign spokesman denounced the committee's vote to release Trump's tax returns as purely political.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of greenlighting an “unprecedented leak,” a move that is “proof they are playing a political game they are losing.”
“If they are so hell-bent on releasing President Trump’s tax returns — which show he built a very successful business and created numerous lucrative assets throughout his career — they should release the tax returns of Nancy Pelosi.”
Cheung lobbed accusations that the outgoing House Speaker and her husband benefitted financially from her position and said Congress should investigate them.
“If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause,” Cheung said.
For her part, Pelosi said the committee's work "makes clear the legislative steps that must now be taken to guard the public trust," and Congress should act on legislation "requiring the Internal Revenue Service to conduct an annual audit of the President’s finances.”
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