slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

November, 2018

Steve Rosenthal, Forbes. (I research and write on tax for the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.)

Incoming House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) indicated that he will request President Trump’s tax returns soon after Democrats formally take control of the House in January. Trump already has said he will try to block their release. In this matter, Neal is right. He not only has the authority to see the president’s tax returns, such a step is appropriate and necessary, as part of our checks and balances. The Constitution calls upon the House, along with the Senate, both to enact legislation and to oversee whether those laws are faithfully executed. To fulfill its oversight responsibility, I believe the House should demand the President’s tax returns.

The House effectively delegates its oversight responsibilities to its committees which can issue subpoenas for documents or testimony from the executive branch. In the matter of tax returns, the law could not be more clear (see Code sec. 6103(f)): Upon written request by either the Chairman of either the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee, the Treasury Secretary “shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request.” The Ways and Means Committee may share these tax returns and related information with the full House, assuming there is a legitimate purpose for doing so.

Congress gave itself the right to review any return or return information in 1924, in the aftermath of two controversies. One was the Teapot Dome scandal, where senior officials in the Harding Administration granted public oil field leases in exchange for bribes. The other involved allegations that Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon continued to own many business interests while serving in government. Some believed the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the precursor to the IRS, showed favoritism to the secretary and his businesses.

The parallels to President Trump are striking. Trump maintains a sprawling business empire, which he refuses to t***sfer to a blind trust. According to multiple published reports, the president, through his businesses, derives income from foreign governments and their lobbyists, which also may violate the Constitution’s prohibition against emoluments. The president reportedly intervened personally to block the FBI from moving its headquarters and thus opening up for commercial development a site just a few blocks from his downtown Washington hotel. The president reportedly paid little or no tax for many years, in part because of aggressive tax planning and, perhaps, tax evasion. And throughout his campaign and since his e******n, the President acknowledged that he has been under audit.

These multiple allegations raise legitimate questions about whether the president is running the government for his benefit or the public’s—or both. Is he profiting from his position? Is the public harmed? Is the IRS auditing the president’s returns appropriately—and without favoritism? Has the IRS proposed any adjustments—and has the president paid them?

To fulfill its oversight responsibility, Congress, through the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, should demand the president’s personal and business tax returns that were open for audit at the time he assumed office and the 2017 returns filed since his e******n. Neal also should request any audit records for these returns, the work papers of any audit, and any written determinations.

For nearly the past half-century, such congressional demands for p**********l tax returns have been unnecessary. In 1974, President Nixon voluntarily released his tax returns to quiet the public clamor over his reportedly low taxes. He also invited the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation to audit his tax returns after the IRS reportedly gave him a pass (and JCT determined he owed an additional $476,431 in back taxes and interest). In the years since, every President until Donald Trump voluntarily released his returns to the public and permitted them to be automatically audited by the IRS automatically audited by the IRS. As Nixon famously explained: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”

Nixon was right.

Liberty Tree

The only reason they want his returns is because of their never ending desire to get Trump. The SCOTUS may ultimately decide.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

This isn't P**********l harassment, it's law and order.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

As per excerpt from above article:

"In the matter of tax returns, the law could not be more clear (see Code sec. 6103(f)): Upon written request by either the Chairman of either the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee, the Treasury Secretary 'shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request.' "

Reading the full article not only clarifies, but justifies congressional action with existing precedent.

Liberty Tree

It is the Democrats trying anyway they can to get Trump. Nothing more and nothing less.it sets the precedent for a very dangerous abuse of power.

bahmer

Amen and Amen

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

With all due respect,President does NOT have to release his Tax Returns..It does NOT requiered by law..

bahmer

And they don't seem to realize that it could be used against them in the near future as well.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

You didn't read the article did you. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that had Obama failed to release his tax returns, both the House and Senate committees would have demanded them pronto.

When one obeys the law, one need not fear it nor hide from it.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

It WILL be the law................once Congress requests them. You didn't read the article either.

Liberty Tree

How do they propose to enforce it?

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

With due respect, I once again provide the pertinent excerpt from the above article:

"The House effectively delegates its oversight responsibilities to its committees which can issue subpoenas for documents or testimony from the executive branch. In the matter of tax returns, the law could not be more clear (see Code sec. 6103(f)): Upon written request by either the Chairman of either the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee, the Treasury Secretary 'shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request.' "

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

As well it should be, if needed.

bahmer

House Democrats have asked the IRS to hand over President Donald Trump’s tax returns by Wednesday. The White House has signaled it has no intention of complying with the request, meaning the battle over the issue is far from over.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, put in a formal request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on April 3 asking for the president’s tax returns from 2013 to 2018. He invoked an obscure 1920s law that authorizes the Ways and Means Committee to get from the Treasury Department the tax return information of any taxpayer.

But it appears highly likely that the deadline will pass without Trump’s tax returns anywhere in sight. The Trump administration has signaled for months that it has no intention of complying and characterized what the Democrats are doing as an example of politicized overreach.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in an interview with Fox News Sunday over the weekend called the Democrats’ request a “political stunt” and said they would “never” see Trump’s returns. “They know they’re not going to get this,” he said.

The path ahead isn’t entirely clear once Neal’s original deadline hits, but it’s likely a court battle looms, though not in the immediate future. A spokesman for Neal’s office said that the path forward depends on how the IRS and Treasury Department respond to the request — if they do at all. (Neal’s office thinks the administration probably won’t respond at all because “they don’t want to have a paper trail of their own saying no.”) The likely next step will be another letter once the deadline passes, and eventually Neal could issue subpoenas or head to court, but he’s keeping his options open. Congress is about to go on recess for the last two weeks of April, which will also slow things down.

According to CNN, Neal told reporters last week he “wanted to make sure that the case we constructed was one that stood up under the critical scrutiny of the courts.”

In other words, the fight over Trump’s tax returns is going to last for a while.

Democrats are using a 1920s law to make this request
Democrats are invoking Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, a statute dating back to 1924, which authorizes the Ways and Means Committee to request from the Treasury Department the tax return information — personal or business — of any taxpayer. Treasury, theoretically, has to comply, and since it doesn’t look like it’s going to, that’s where the legal battle would likely come in.

University of Virginia law professor and former Joint Committee on Taxation chief of staff George Yin laid out the process in testimony before Congress in February. He explained that congressional authority to request tax return information was added in 1924 as a co-equal branch of government; before that, only the president had such authority to request and disclose tax returns:

Section 6103(f) does not place any conditions on the exercise of the authority to obtain tax return information by the Ways and Means Committee. Moreover, it provides no basis for the Treasury Secretary to refuse a request. I believe both features were intentional. Since the president at the time had unconditional access to tax returns, Congress wanted to give its committees the same right.
Congress made some changes to the law in 1976, including eliminating the ability of the president and any congressional committees not related to tax to disclose tax information to the public. But a handful of tax committees, including Ways and Means, can still lawfully request someone’s tax returns.

Democrats have been building their case for a while
Democrats will have a better shot in succeeding in getting Trump’s tax returns if they can build a strong case for why they want them and show that they’re pursuing them out of legislative and oversight duties, not as part of a partisan fishing expedition.

Neal in a statement on his request laid out the Democrats’ argument. He said the Ways and Means committee has the responsibility to conduct oversight of the federal tax system and “determine how Americans — including those elected to our highest office — are complying with those laws.” He also said the committee needs to make sure the IRS is doing its duty in properly enforcing tax laws. The IRS has a policy of auditing all presidents and vice presidents, and Democrats want to make sure that’s what they’re doing.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), who has been making the case for pursuing Trump’s tax returns under Section 6103 basically since Trump was inaugurated, in an emailed statement to me earlier this year said he believes the evidence which indicates the president “has abused our tax laws is plentiful.” He cited a New York Times investigation into Trump and his family’s tax practices that suggested the family for years engaged in a number of schemes to avoid taxes, and leaked pages from Trump’s 1995 and 2005 tax returns; the 1995 ones show a nearly $1 billion loss.

“Americans have a right to know if their president has paid his taxes, if he has followed the law, and if he is free from financial conflicts of interest,” Pascrell said. “The law is clear. Under 6103, the Ways and Means Committee chairman is entitled to request Trump’s tax returns — and the Treasury secretary is obligated to deliver them. That’s all there is to it.”

The White House has signaled they’ve got no interest in complying
Before and after Democrats put in their formal request for the president’s tax returns, the signal from the Trump administration has been that they’re not interested in cooperating.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in testimony before the House of Representatives in March suggested he would seek to keep Trump’s tax returns under wraps. “We will follow the law and we will protect the president as we would protect any individual taxpayer under their rights,” he said.

William Consovoy, Trump’s personal lawyer, sent a letter to Treasury Department general counsel Brent McIntoch on Friday arguing against releasing Trump’s tax returns. He said that the tax code “zealously guards taxpayer privacy” and that Neal’s request “flouts …fundamental constitutional constraints.”

He said the Ways and Means Committee has “no legitimate purpose” for requesting Trump’s tax returns, and even if it did, it doesn’t matter. “Even if Ways and Means had a legitimate committee purpose for requesting the President’s tax returns and information, that purpose is not driving Chairman Neal’s request,” Consovoy wrote. “His request is a t***sparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and his speech.”

Jay Sekulow, another personal attorney for Trump, in an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, also dismissed the Democrats’ request.

“This idea that you can use the IRS as a political weapon, which is what is happening here, is incorrect both as a matter of statutory law and constitutionally. We should not be in a situation where individual’s — individual private tax returns are used for political purposes,” he said. He also said that the president hasn’t asked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) tax returns.


As the New York Times notes, Trump’s lawyers’ thoughts on the issue don’t really make much of a difference one way or the other, but they’re indicative of the Trump team’s stance on the issue.

Democrats getting Trump’s tax returns doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get to see them
Even if Democrats are able to get the president’s tax returns, there is debate over whether they can legally be made public.

If the Ways and Means Committee gets Trump’s tax returns, it could then v**e to have some or all of the tax returns released to the rest of the House of Representatives, so all members would have access to it. But then it’s unclear if it’s legal to make that information public.

Ken Kies, the managing director of the Federal Policy Group, testified before Congress in February that it would be a felony for a member of Congress or staff to publicly disclose tax returns, punishable for up to five years in prison. Others, however, disagreed. Yin argued that, if the committee v**es to release them to the full House, making the tax returns public would be allowed.

That debate — and the conclusion to it — is still a long way away, unless the Trump administration magically decides before Wednesday that they’re fine with releasing his tax returns after all. But it’s far likelier this fight is going to play out for quite some time.

badbobby Loc: texas

How many times does this have to be answered?
There is no requirement, certainly not a Constitutional one.
There is a tradition started by George Romney
that most candidates have followed,
but not most major candidates, who have mostly released
something,
but often just the one-page summary
after they were elected.
Of course Hillary Clinton released 25 years—they were already public. And simple.
Second, and shout this from the rooftops: Trump did release more than that. I have yet to hear a speculation of what Trump’s tax returns might show but that are already in the actually required FEC disclosures that he did release. Those disclosures list all 465 companies he was an executive of, all 1000+ sources of income, etc.—more than tax returns show anyway!
Further, to argue that there's something major in there is to argue that the entirety of DC on both sides, that sieve of leaky justice, most of whom consider it their moral duty to leak anything that could possibly hurt Trump, including the highly political IRS, either had no access to Trump’s returns or magically developed a very compartmentalized short-term integrity for that one thing.