Democrats currently sitting in the main tax-writing committee in the House voted during a closed-door meeting to release six years of former President Trump’s tax returns after many years of the Democrats trying to gain access to Trump’s records. The Republicans have widely viewed this move as a provocation as they will soon gain control of the House.
The returns which had been acquired by the Ways and Means committee are for the years 2015 to 2020 and are set to be released within the next few days as Ways and Means leader Richard Neal (D-Mass.) disclosed. The returns would be part of one of the two package reports sent from the committee to Congress so that there could be further investigations of the presidential audit system of the IRS.
Before the release of Trump’s tax returns, there are many portions that will need to be redacted as they include Trump’s bank account details and social security number. This could lead to a few-day delay as the committee tries to prepare the document.
The Democrats have not made any statements regarding the returns ahead of the tax returns. Normally private tax returns are considered to be protected documents and the IRS has not yet completed its audits. Republican committee leader Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) also noted that it has not been determined what former President Trump may owe in taxes for that period of time.
However, there have been some Democrats who have started speaking out about what they have seen in the returns. In a statement on Tuesday Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) noted that Trump has over the years “claimed tens of millions of dollars in losses and credits without the type of substantiation an ordinary taxpayer” would have needed. He added that Trump has “big deductions, big credits, and big losses—but seldom a big tax bill.”
