Democrats in Congress released former President Donald Trump’s six-year tax returns Friday, the culmination of a years-long effort to learn the finances of a former business magnate who broke decades of political norms when he refused to voluntarily disclose. the information as sought by the White House.
The statements, which include the redaction of some sensitive personal information such as bank and Social Security account numbers, are from 2015 to 2020. Their release follows a partisan vote in the House Ways and Means Committee last week to make the statements public.
Democrats on the committee argued that transparency and the rule of law were at stake, while Republicans countered that the post would set a dangerous precedent regarding the loss of privacy protections.
Trump had refused to release his remarks when he ran for president and had fought a legal battle to keep them secret while in the White House. But the Supreme Court ruled last month that it had to turn them over to the tax-drafting Ways and Means Committee.
The statement, just days before Trump’s fellow Republicans retake control of the House from Democrats, raises the potential for further revelations about Trump’s finances, which have been shrouded in mystery and intrigue since his days as an up-and-coming real estate developer. of manhattan. in the 1980s The results could take on added significance now that Trump has launched a campaign for the White House in 2024. They likely offer the clearest picture yet of his finances during his time in office.
Trump, known for building skyscrapers and hosting a reality show before winning the White House, gave some limited details about his holdings and income on mandatory disclosure forms. He has touted his wealth in the annual financial statements he provides to banks to obtain loans and to financial magazines to justify his place in the rankings of the world’s billionaires.
Trump’s accounting firm has since disavowed the statements, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump and his Trump Organization inflated the values of the assets in the statements as part of a years-long fraud. . Trump and his company have denied any wrongdoing.
It won’t be the first time Trump’s tax returns have come under scrutiny. In October 2018, The New York Times published a Pulitzer Prize-winning series based on leaked tax records showing that Trump received the modern equivalent of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate holdings, much of that money coming from what the Times called “tax evasion” in the 1990s. A second series in 2020 showed that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018, and paid no income tax in 10 of the last 15 years because you generally lost more money than you made. In its report last week, the Ways and Means Committee indicated that the Trump administration may have ignored a post-Watergate requirement calling for audits of a president’s tax returns.
The IRS only began auditing Trump’s 2016 tax returns on April 3, 2019, more than two years into his presidency, when committee chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., asked the agency for information. related to tax returns. By comparison, there were audits of President Joe Biden for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman. A spokesman for former President Barack Obama said Obama was audited in each of his eight years in office.
A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation raised multiple red flags about aspects of Trump’s tax returns, including his carryover losses, deductions tied to conservation and charitable donations, and loans to his children that could be subject gifts. to taxes.
The House passed a bill in response that would require audits of any president’s income tax returns. Republicans strongly opposed the legislation, raising concerns that a law requiring audits would infringe on taxpayer privacy and could lead to audits being weaponized for political gain.
The measure, passed mostly along partisan lines, has little chance of becoming law anytime soon with a new Republican-led House due to be sworn in in January. Rather, it is seen as a starting point for future efforts to strengthen oversight of the presidency.
Republicans have argued that Democrats will regret the move once Republicans take office next week, and warn that the committee’s new Republican chairman will be under pressure to seek out and make public the tax returns of other prominent people.
Every major party president and candidate since Richard Nixon has voluntarily made at least summaries of their tax information available to the public. Trump bucked that trend as a candidate and as president, repeatedly stating that his taxes were “under audit” and could not be published.
Trump’s lawyers were repeatedly denied in their quest to keep his tax returns from the House committee.
A three-judge federal appeals court panel in August upheld a lower court ruling granting the committee access.
Trump’s lawyers also tried and failed to stop the Manhattan district attorney’s office from obtaining Trump’s tax records as part of its investigation into his business practices, losing twice in Supreme Court.
Trump’s longtime accountant, Donald Bender, testified at the recent Trump Organization criminal trial in Manhattan that Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $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, said Trump’s reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many companies he owns through the Trump Organization. . The Trump Organization was convicted earlier this month on tax fraud charges for helping some executives. avoid taxes on profits paid by the company, such as apartments and luxury cars.
