A US House committee has gained access to Donald Trump‘s tax returns following a years-long legal battle with the former Republican president, who accused the Democrat-led panel of being politically motivated. “Treasury has complied with last week’s court ruling,” a Treasury spokesman said in an emailed statement late Wednesday. A spokesman declined to say whether the committee had already received the documents.
The Ways and Means Committee received the tax returns after the Supreme Court ruled to release them. He is seeking returns from 2015 to 2020, which he says he needs to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly auditing presidential returns and whether new legislation is needed. The panel will have little time to do its work, with Republicans poised to win the House majority in January. Trump, who launched his third consecutive presidential bid on Nov. 15, fought the committee tooth and nail not to fire them.
He was the first president in four decades to not release his tax returns as he sought to conceal details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization. It has long been customary, though not required, for major party presidential candidates to release their statements. Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, posted heavy losses from his business ventures over several years to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in income, according to media reports and court testimony about his finances. This allowed him to pay very little in taxes.
A major question hanging over the committee’s work is what will happen to the revenues when Republicans take control of the House from Democrats. The committee first asked for Trump’s returns in 2019. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, the counterpart to the Ways and Means Committee, were weighing their options for any action on Trump’s tax returns, according to an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. Democrats won the Senate majority in November’s midterm elections.
