Now Donald Trump is set to sign a major tax overhaul that could enrich him significantly, without giving the public the means to tell for sure. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Trump’s decision to withhold tax returns obscures how he'll fare under overhaul

President Donald Trump has a history of winning bets that the traditional political rules do not apply to him, and his precedent-breaking decision not to release his tax returns is again proving no exception.

As major tax cut legislation barrels toward the Oval Office, the White House on Tuesday again declined to release Trump’s tax returns and defended — without providing any evidence — his assertion that the bill will “cost me a fortune.”


Now he is set to sign a major tax overhaul that could enrich him significantly, without giving the public the means to tell for sure.

Independent analyses have found that the bill, which passed the House on Tuesday afternoon and is expected to pass the Senate Tuesday evening — though procedural hurdles could delay it reaching the president's desk — will provide massive benefits to the ultra-rich, including Trump and his family.

Still, the White House maintains his personal taxes would go up, though press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged Tuesday that "on the business side" Trump could benefit.

“This actually could impact the president in a large way,” Sanders said when pressed on the matter.

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“I know that there are a number of provisions that would negatively impact the president personally,” Sanders added, without specifying any. “And so we contend that those comments are still very consistent. However, like I said, our focus has been on the middle class.”

Experts disagree that the president would pay more under his tax overhaul.

“You could put it in the same category as what he was arguing about the size of the crowds at his inauguration,” said Daniel Shaviro, a professor of taxation at New York University Law School who worked on the Joint Committee on Taxation when the 1986 tax overhaul was passed.

Shaviro pointed specifically to the reduction in the estate tax — which will allow Trump’s children to keep more of their inheritance — and new benefits for pass-through businesses, including significant breaks for real-estate companies like the president's.

Shaviro called the idea that Trump would pay more taxes “ludicrous.”

“It would be difficult to find a single provision in the tax bill that has an adverse effect on him with the exception of the state and local tax deduction repeal,” he said. “On the other hand there are many provisions that will benefit him tremendously.”

Trump's tax obfuscation has provided ample ammunition to Democrats, who have slammed the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that will shower benefits on the president and his family. But those arguments were lost on a GOP Congress that needed legislative wins and had long promised a tax overhaul. The speed with which the bill moved further drowned out questions about the president’s own financing.

Trump could clear up the question of how he fares under the tax bill if he released tax returns. But Sanders said on Tuesday that Trump’s tax returns remain under audit and that he will not release them until the audit is completed.

“I don’t think it’s that complicated — as long as they’re under audit, he’s not going to release his taxes,” she said.

Being under audit does not prevent individuals from releasing their tax returns.