U.S Reps Committee release former President Trump’s Tax Returns
On Friday, the United States House of Representatives committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns just days before Republicans take control of the chamber.
The returns dating from 2015 to 2020 are about a four-year battle between the former Republican President and Democratic lawmakers resolved last month by the US Supreme Court.
This is the outcome of Trump’s tax investigation; the former President was impeached twice by the Democratic-led House only to be acquitted both times by the Senate. He now faces multiple legal woes as he aims for a 2024 re-election bid.
The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters asked federal prosecutors to charge him with four crimes, including obstruction and insurrection, for his role in the deadly riot.
On the release of the returns, Trump said, “the Democrats and the Supreme Court shouldn’t have approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The radical, left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”
He said the returns “once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
OPINIONS ON THE TAX RETURNS RELEASED
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal had requested the returns in 2019, arguing that Congress needed them to determine if legislation on presidential tax returns was warranted.
Republicans said the move could lead to the political weaponisation of individual tax returns and warned that party members who take over the panel next month would face pressure to pursue a similar path against high-profile Democrats.
Trump, who took office in 2017, was the first presidential candidate in decades not to release his taxes. He had waged a legal battle to keep them secret while in the White House. But the Supreme Court ruled last month that he had to turn them over to the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE ERROR
In a report last week, the committee outlined its findings from its examination of the documents, saying the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) broke its own rules by not auditing Trump for three out of four years while he was President.
The IRS only audited Trump’s 2016 tax filings on April 3, 2019–over two years into his presidency—when the committee chairman, Representative Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked the agency for information related to the tax returns.
By comparison, there were audits of President Joe Biden for the 2020 and 2021 tax years, said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson. A spokesperson for former President Barack Obama said Obama was audited in each of his eight years in office.
THE RED FLAGS
A report from Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation raised multiple red flags about Trump’s tax filings, including his carryover losses, deductions tied to conservation and charitable donations, and loans to his children that could be taxable gifts.
Details previously released by the panel showed Trump paid no income tax in 2020, his final full year in office, despite millions of dollars in earnings from his sprawling business empire.
The records show Trump’s income and tax liability fluctuated dramatically from 2015 through 2020, during his first presidential bid and subsequent term in office. They show that Trump and his wife, Melania Trump claimed large deductions and losses and paid little or no income tax in several of those years.
The returns are likely to offer the most precise picture yet Trump’s finances during his time in office.
“During his first few years in the presidency, his income appeared to stabilize. But then, in 2020, he reported a loss of some $4 million, which resulted in him paying zero tax 2020. Now, another thing about this is that Donald Trump claimed he would not release his tax records because he was under audit. These records show that was a blatant lie,” said Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington DC.
TRUMP’S FINANCIAL HISTORY
Trump’s longtime accounting firm has since disavowed the statements. New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued to allege Trump and his Trump Organization inflated asset values on the statements as part of a yearlong fraud. Trump and his company have denied any wrongdoing.
The Trump Organisation was convicted earlier this month on separate tax fraud charges for helping some executives dodge taxes on company-paid perks, such as apartments and luxury cars.
Democrats were on a tight timeline to handle the returns once they obtained them, given that Republicans will take control of the House on Tuesday after winning a slim majority in November’s midterm elections.
The Democratic-controlled House passed a bill before it left on its winter recess that would mandate that the tax-collecting IRS complete audits of presidents’ tax filings within 90 days of their inaugurations.
Trump, known for building skyscrapers and hosting a reality TV show before winning the White House, did give some limited details about his holdings and income on mandatory disclosure forms. He has promoted his wealth in the annual financial statements he provides to banks to secure loans and to financial magazines to ensure his place in the rankings of the world’s billionaires.
Al Jazeera/S.O
