Six years worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns were made public by a House committee on Friday, ending years of legal disputes and rumours about what might be included in the filings.
On a party-line vote last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved making the thousands of pages of returns public. However, the publication was postponed while workers removed sensitive personal data, such as Social Security numbers, from the records.
Richard Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, made the request for the returns in 2019. He claimed that Congress need access to them in order to assess the necessity for laws governing presidential returns.
Trump, who was elected president in 2017, was the first candidate in many years to withhold his tax returns, and he sued the committee to keep them secret. In November, the Supreme Court rendered a decision in the committee’s favour.
Trump had fought in court to keep his tax returns private while he was president and had refused to reveal them when he was running for office. However, the Supreme Court decided last month that he had to give them to the Ways and Means Committee, which draughts tax laws.
The release raises the possibility of fresh information about Trump’s finances, which have been shrouded in mystery and intrigue since his days as a budding Manhattan real estate developer in the 1980s. This is especially true given that it comes just days before Trump’s fellow Republicans reclaim control of the House from the Democrats. The fact that Trump has announced his bid for the presidency in 2024 may give the results a greater sense of significance.
Before being elected president, Trump built towers and hosted a reality TV programme. He did, however, provide some limited information about his assets and income on the required disclosure forms. His wealth has been highlighted in the annual financial accounts he submits to banks in order to obtain loans and to financial publications to support his inclusion on lists of the world’s billionaires.
Since then, the statements have been denied by Trump’s longtime accounting company, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched a lawsuit, saying that Trump and his Trump Organization exaggerated asset values on the statements as part of a long-running scam. Indiscretions have been refuted by Trump and his business.
The investigation revealed that, for instance, Trump appeared to owe no taxes in 2020. Trump had a negative adjusted gross income of $4 million as a result of his $15 million in claimed company losses. Then, Trump requested a $5 million return.
In 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020, Trump reported experiencing millions of dollars in negative income, yet in 2016 and 2017, he only contributed $750 in federal income taxes.
Trump and his wife Melania recorded enormous losses of more than $16.4 million in 2019, but they also claimed to have earned a total of $4.4 million.
Given that Republicans will assume control of the House on January 3 following their narrow victory in the midterm elections in November, Democrats were under pressure to come up with a plan to handle the results as soon as they were made available.
The demand for tax returns has been criticised by Republicans as being politically driven.
Before adjourning for its Christmas break, the Democratic-controlled House enacted a measure requiring the IRS to finish audits of presidents’ tax returns 90 days after their inauguration.
