House Panel Releases Trump Tax Returns In Another Setback For Former President

Former President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters on election night at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

The House Ways and Means Committee released Donald Trump's tax returns on Friday, dealing another blow to the former president and 2024 White House candidate as he faces multiple federal and state investigations.

The Democratic-led commission released six years of financial documents, ending a long legal and political battle that could have been avoided had Trump followed presidential precedent and voluntarily released his report.

Democrats have been pushing for the release of Trump's tax returns for more than three years, and late last month the documents were finally turned over to the Ways and Means Committee after the Supreme Court rejected Trump's attempt to declassify the files.

The results show that Trump paid very little income tax during his four years in office. They answered questions from lawmakers and others about whether Trump claimed ineligible itemized deductions to avoid paying taxes.

“The president is no ordinary taxpayer. They have the same power and influence as other Americans. And with great power comes great responsibility,” committee chairman Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) said last week.

Friday's committee release includes thousands of pages of financial documents that lawmakers have made publicly available for download and review.

In response to the revelations, Trump said, “The Democrats should never have done this, the Supreme Court should never have allowed this, and it leads to terrible things for a lot of people. The Radical Left Democrats have militarized everything, but remember, this is a dangerous two-way street!

President Biden is a candidate and has officially released his tax returns.

The publication marks another setback for Trump, who has struggled to manage his presidential campaign amid multiple investigations and controversies surrounding him. His recent actions, from a dinner with outspoken white supremacists to a proposal to repeal the Constitution, have the Republican Party wondering if he remains the GOP top leadership candidate after mid-term voters rejected most of the former president's backing candidates.

Trump's release of tax information is the biggest move Congress has made in half a century. IRS Chairman Richard M. There has not been such an act involving a president since 1973, when Nixon's tax returns were submitted to a congressional committee.

The IRS returned Nixon's tax returns the day Congress requested them. Democrats want to find this information in Trump's documents. Republicans deny any collusion, with the Washington Post reporting that they called for an investigation into Nixon's return while Trump was conducting such an investigation.

Breaking with a long tradition of presidential candidates and presidents refusing to release their tax returns, Trump falsely claimed for years that he could not release them during "routine audits" by the IRS.

House of Representatives approves release of Trump's tax returns

The Ways and Means Committee found last week that the IRS did not audit Trump's financial records during his first two years in office, despite rules requiring such audits, and did not conduct any during his tenure.

If the IRS completes its audit work and confirms some of the concerns raised in the report, it's unlikely that Trump will face major legal issues later, beyond adjustments or fines. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which has been conducting a criminal investigation into Trump since the summer of 2018, has been aware of Trump's tax returns for more than a year and has not filed charges against him.

Trump's CFO and his company were found guilty of tax offenses after investigators found that the CFO and other leaders of the Trump organization deliberately evaded taxes and bought perks such as luxury apartments and Mercedes-Benz.

The release comes as Special Counsel Jack Smith is overseeing a Justice Department criminal investigation into Trump's alleged misuse of classified documents at his Florida home and his role in trying to nullify the 2020 election. Last week, a House Select Committee investigated the case on January 6, 2021. The attack on the United States Capitol filed four criminal charges against Trump with the Justice Department: obstruction of the official process of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States or aid and incite rebellion, and perjury to testify. Conspiracy to testify.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who said she had access to Trump's federal tax returns "for several years," has filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his senior executive, and leaders of the Trump Organization, alleging ratings have changed. . manipulated. property and other assets in order to defraud creditors. Trump and his campaign denied the allegations. The trial is scheduled for October 2023.

On January 13, two longtime Trump Organization executives are due to be convicted of tax crimes. $1.6 million fine.

Trump will also face an investigation in Georgia, where a Fulton County grand jury is investigating whether Trump and his associates interfered in the state's 2020 election. District Attorney Fanny Willis (D) said she expects a grand jury to report its findings by the end of the year. Willis said he would decide later whether to prosecute.

IRS agents began but did not complete several checks on Trump while he was in the White House, according to a letter from Acting IRS Commissioner Douglas W. O'Donnell and a detailed report by Congressional tax experts released by the committee. The records paint a picture of the agency struggling to meet the current president's demands for nearly 500 companies, many of which are active.

The agency began reviewing Trump's 2015 taxes in January 2018, when O'Donnell said in a letter to Neal this month that she plans to specifically look at Trump's charitable donations, investment income, excess income and losses used by the couple. . Reduce taxes from one tax year to the next (this is called a net operating loss).

Once the review began, an IRS agent began investigating a $21.1 million deduction claimed by Trump to benefit from his Seven Springs property in New York, according to a 40-page report written by staff of the Joint Taxation Committee, which advises Congress. On the preparation and interpretation of tax reporting. Installation cost was based on estimates received by mail in 2020 and based on unsubstantiated claims and misleading results.

According to the report, an IRS agent inspected the property on January 24, 2022 and met with appraisers on November 22. The agent issued memorandums outlining two possible adjustments: cancel the full deduction "on the basis that the assessment was not a quality assessment" or reduce the deduction to $8.95 million.

The report indicates that the issue has not yet been resolved. Although work began four years ago, O'Donnell, who took over as commissioner on November 12, wrote that the review was far from over.

In the 2016 tax year, the IRS also began a review. One of the issues raised by the IRS agent at the time was the tax credit claimed by Trump for converting the historic old post office in downtown Washington into a luxury hotel. (It has since become the Waldorf Astoria.) But it was not included in the report because the IRS does not require tax returns for these properties.

O'Donnell wrote that the 2016 tax year audit was "tentatively completed" but that information from other audits is "pending" to be finalized.

The IRS also began audits for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax years. In September 2020, after the New York Times began publishing Trump's tax return, IRS officials met to discuss various issues raised in the newspaper report, including Seven Springs' debt. Family members, advice to family members and "fuel, food, haircut, makeup artist, etc." expenses. Trump listed this as a business expense on his 2017 tax return. The discussion led to a conversation with a Trump spokesman, who was not named in the report, about the parameters of the investigation.

But in each of those years, O'Donnell repeated the same line in a letter to Neal: "The investigation team has not yet completed its work." He said Trump's 2020 earnings "haven't been counted yet."

O'Donnell also informed Neil that the IRS was investigating two of Trump's companies, DJT Holdings LLC and DJT Holdings Management Member LLC. Both companies reflect Trump's personal ownership of the company; Together, they own the vast majority of Trump's property and business, according to Trump's government-as-president disclosure forms.

The IRS has begun an annual review of the two companies from 2015 to 2019, O'Donnell wrote to Neil, but said neither review was fully completed. Other documents released by the committee show that the IRS has repeatedly tried to extend the statute of limitations for these reviews.

To ensure the IRS can verify applications from future presidents, the House of Representatives passed legislation last week by a vote of 220 to 201 that would require the IRS to expedite reviews of presidents and their businesses and release documents within 90 days of filing. . The Senate did not pass the bill before the expiration of the term of Congress, nullifying the effort.

"The American people want to believe that the most powerful person in this country, who has given them all executive power, makes decisions based on the interests of the American people, and not their own financial interests," the spokesman said. . Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), member of the Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview.