The Democrat-run House Ways and Means Committee voted on Tuesday to make public former US president Donald Trump’s tax returns.
The decision will create a war of words between Trump supporters and the Democrats in a country that remains deeply polarised.
The decision may also anger privacy experts in the country.
The decision to release the documents, which the former real estate mogul has long tried to shield, was released after several hours of debate.
The tax returns revealed that Donald Trump suffered serious losses and also engaged in activities aimed at dodging tax.
Why Was There a Need to Reveal His Tax Returns?
When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2016, he broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax returns to the public.
He also bragged to his supporters and the American public that it was smart of him since he paid no federal taxes.
When he announced the 2017 tax cuts and signed those into law, he said he did not personally benefit from those.
Those tax cuts, however, favoured people with extreme wealth.
He did not provide any proof that any of his tax cuts did not favour him but asked the American people to simply take him at his word.
The US Supreme Court cleared the way in November for the treasury department to send the tax returns to Congress which allowed the committee access to six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses.
Trump’s tax returns were also important because it was a useful metric to judge how successful he may have been as a businessman.
It was necessary to see how he ran his businesses because he used his businessman-past to boost his presidential campaign.
Tax returns reveal financial obligations – including foreign debts – which also would show if those obligations affected the way he governed.
However, in October 2018 and September 2020, the New York Times published two separate series of articles that revealed some information about his taxes.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 articles revealed that Trump received at least $413m from his father’s real estate holdings (based on current market estimates) and most of that money came from “tax dodges” in the 1990s, according to the NYT.
The articles published in 2020 revealed that Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018 and paid no income tax at all in 10 of the past 15 years as he incurred more losses than profits.
Trump derided the findings as fake news. Details about Trump’s income from foreign operations and debt levels were also released along with the tax filings.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm in 2019 and sought access to eight years of Trump’s tax returns and related documents in 2019 after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that the former president misled tax officials, insurers and business associates regarding the value of his assets.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office also obtained copies of Trump’s tax records in February 2021 after a protracted legal fight that included two trips to the supreme court.
His longtime accountant, Donald Bender, testified at the Trump Organization’s recent criminal trial that the former president reported the losses in his tax returns every year for a decade – he lost nearly $700m in 2009 and $200m in 2010.
The Trump Organization was convicted on tax fraud charges for helping executives to dodge taxes on company-paid perks such as apartments and luxury cars.
His party, the Republican Party, has said that the potential release would set a dangerous example.
“You can’t learn much from tax returns, but it is illegal to release them if they are not yours,” Trump complained.
Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas says that move made by the Democrats jeopardises the privacy of every American.
(with inputs from the Guardian and the Associated Press)
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