In what is likely to become a protracted battle with U.S. President Donald Trump, a committee of the U.S House of Representatives has demanded six years of Mr. Trump’s personal and business tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman (a Democrat), Richard E. Neal, based his request to the IRS on an arcane part of the tax code, to request the documents, after months of discussion and deliberation with other committee members, the American media has reported.
The tax code permits the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to obtain the tax returns of any American tax filer and this was cited to request the returns. In addition to Mr. Trump’s personal returns for the 2013-2018 period, the Committee has requested returns for eight of Mr. Trump’s business, including the Bedminster golf course have been requested.
While it has been practice for presidents to voluntarily release their tax returns, Mr. Trump has refused to do so. The President has said before that his returns are under audit and he cannot release them, a claim he made again on Tuesday.
“But I’ve been under audit because the numbers are big and I guess when you have a name you’re audited. But until such time as I’m not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump had reportedly told White House advisers that he would fight the House request all the way to the Supreme Court and hope it would be stalled until after the 2020 elections, the Washington Post reported.
On the Hill, Mr Neal defended his request. “This request is about policy, not politics; my preparations were made on my own track and timeline, entirely independent of other activities in Congress and the administration,” Mr. Neal said in a statement.
The ranking Republican member of House Ways and Means however opposed the move.
“Weaponizing our nation’s tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans’ privacy rights,” Mr. Brady told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a letter.
