WASHINGTON — Democrats have talked about getting Trump’s tax returns for years.
On Wednesday, they finally went there.
Videos by VICE
The House Ways & Means Committee sent a request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig for six years’ worth of President Trump’s tax returns, with a deadline of next Wednesday, April 10, the committee said in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon.
“I today submitted to IRS Commissioner Rettig my request for six years of the president’s personal tax returns as well as the returns for some of his business entities,” said committee chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “We have completed the necessary groundwork for a request of this magnitude and I am certain we are within our legitimate legislative, legal, and oversight rights.”
Neal wants to see personal returns from 2013 to 2018, along with eight corporate entities, including the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and also Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to the letter sent to the IRS.
The committee is seeking the tax returns and associated information in order to find out whether the IRS’s own policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents is being followed with respect to President Trump, Neal said.
“We must obtain President Trump’s tax returns and review whether the IRS is carrying out its responsibilities,” Neal said. “The Committee has a duty to examine whether Congressional action may be needed to require such audits, and to oversee that they are conducted properly.”
Democrats haven’t subpoenaed the returns, but rather used a lesser-known provision of the law to make the request known as “section 6103(f),” which the committee said authorizes the disclosure of tax returns.
Cover: President Donald Trump smiles as he walks on the South Lawn after stepping off Marine One at the White House, Sunday, March 10, 2019, in Washington. Trump is returning from a trip to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
