US President Donald Trump is unlikely to hand over his tax returns to politicians in Congress despite yesterday’s deadline facing the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (I
David Morgan
April 24 2019 2:30 AM
US President Donald Trump is unlikely to hand over his tax returns to politicians in Congress despite yesterday’s deadline facing the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the White House said.
However, a Democratic congressional aide declared the decision was not up to the president.
“As I understand it, the president’s pretty clear: once he’s out of audit, he’ll think about doing it, but he’s not inclined to do so at this time,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News.
Representative Richard Neal, Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, requested six years of Mr Trump’s individual and business returns on April 3 and had set a final deadline of 5pm yesterday.
He informed IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in a letter that failure to comply would be viewed as a denial.
Failure to meet the congressional deadline could mire the administration and lawmakers in a lengthy legal fight.
“This is not up to the president. We did not ask him,” said a Democratic committee aide, who cited a law saying the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” taxpayer data upon request from an authorised member of Congress.
“In terms of the law, what he says is largely irrelevant,” said the aide, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the White House remarks.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has vowed Mr Trump’s tax returns would “never” be handed over to Democrats.
But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he intends to “follow the law” while pledging to keep the IRS from being “weaponised” for political gain.
As Ways and Means chairman, Mr Neal is the only politician in the House of Representatives authorised to request taxpayer information under federal law.
