WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s tax returns are scheduled to be released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday, a congressional aide confirmed Tuesday.
That’s the next time the House, which is taking a break for the holidays, is scheduled to meet for its regular pro forma meeting.
The aide was not authorized to publicly discuss the timing of his release and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Democratic-controlled committee voted last week to release Trump’s filings, with some redacted sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and contact information. The release raises the possibility of additional revelations related to the finances of a longtime businessman who broke political norms by refusing to disclose his earnings when seeking the presidency.
Voting took place on the same day the commission released its report. The report found that the IRS failed to pursue mandatory audits in a timely manner during Trump’s presidency. It shows that the Trump administration may have ignored an IRS requirement dating back to 1977 that mandates an audit of the president’s tax returns.
The IRS began auditing Trump’s 2016 tax returns on April 3, 2019. This comes more than two years after Trump became president and just a few months after Democrats took control of the House. That date coincided with when the chairman of the committee, Rep. Richard Neal of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, asked his IRS for information related to Trump’s tax returns.
The vote was the culmination of a long-running battle between Trump and Democrats that has played out everywhere from the campaign to Congress to the Supreme Court.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee argued that transparency and the rule of law were at stake, while Republicans countered that disclosure would set a dangerous precedent for loss of privacy protections.
“This is about the presidency, not the president,” Neal told reporters last week.
“Unfortunately, the deed is complete,” said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican member of the panel.
