US: On Friday, Democrats in Congress made public six years’ worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns, revealing information the former president had long fought to keep private and coping with yet another setback as he prepares to run for office again in 2024.
Trump’s redacted tax returns for the years 2015 through 2020 were made public by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives committee, capping a multi-year legal dispute between the former Republican president and Democratic lawmakers that was finally resolved by the US Supreme Court last month.
Trump’s income and tax obligations changed significantly between 2015 and 2020, during his first run for president and the succeeding period in office, according to the data. In several of those years, he and his wife claimed significant losses and deductions while paying little to no income tax.
Trump, the first presidential candidate in decades to not reveal his tax returns
Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to not reveal his tax returns. He was a businessman who assumed public office for the first time when he was elected president in 2017. He sued the committee in an effort to keep them secret, but the committee won the case at the US Supreme Court.
The committee’s conclusions, which were made public last week, claimed that Trump was not audited by the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service for three out of four years being president.
Neal originally asked for the returns in 2019. He claimed that Congress required them to decide whether or not legislation pertaining to presidential tax returns was necessary.
The 76-year-old Trump, who was twice impeached by the Democratic-controlled House before being cleared both times by the U.S. Senate, suffered yet another setback as he prepares to run for reelection in 2024.
The House committee looking into his followers’ attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, requested that he be charged with four offences, including obstruction and insurrection for his part in the tragic riot, earlier this month.
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Trump’s response
In a statement, Trump said: “The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people.”
“The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!” said he.
The leading Republican on the House panel, Representative Kevin Brady, issued a warning that future committee chairs will have “almost unlimited” authority to release the tax returns of private individuals, including “political opponents.”
In a statement, Brady said, “This is a regrettable stain on the Ways and Means Committee and Congress and will make American politics even more divisive and disheartening. In the long run, Democrats will come to regret it.”
Trump did not pay income tax in 2020, his final full year in office, despite making millions from his vast commercial empire, according to information previously made public by the panel.
Given that Republicans would gain control of the House on Tuesday after securing a narrow majority in the midterm elections in November, Democrats were under pressure to come up with a plan to handle the returns as soon as they were made available.
Before adjourning for the winter break, the Democratic-controlled House enacted a measure requiring the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes, to finish audits of presidents’ tax returns 90 days after their inaugurations.
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