House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal’s request is relatively narrow, asking for six years of Trump’s individual and business returns. The move is expected to be met with strong resistance by the White House. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Finance House Democrats unleash bid for Trump's tax returns

The House’s top tax writer formally requested President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Wednesday, escalating a bid by Democrats to unmask the long-hidden documents that’s likely to ignite a precedent-setting legal showdown between Congress and the administration.

Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), citing an arcane law allowing him to examine anyone’s confidential tax filings, asked for six years of Trump’s personal tax returns and of some of his businesses. He is asking the administration to turn over the documents by April 10.


Democrats have a long list of questions they hope the documents will help answer, including about potential conflicts of interest, connections to Russia and how much he pays in taxes.

“It is critical to ensure the accountability of our government and elected officials,” said Neal. “To maintain trust in our democracy, the American people must be assured that their government is operating properly, as laws intend.”

The administration immediately rejected the move. Asked this evening about the request, Trump said: “Until such time as I am not under audit, I will not be doing that, thank you.”

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“We are under audit, despite what people said and we are working that out,” he said.

Neal’s request for the president’s filings for 2013 through 2018 is narrower than what some pushing for a broad investigation of the president’s finances had hoped for.

Some want to see a decade’s worth of his personal and business returns, a standard Democrats themselves have set in separate legislation that would begin requiring presidents and White House contenders to disclosure their filings.

It’s unclear though how many of Trump’s old returns the IRS still has on file. The agency has a policy of disposing of filings after a certain number of years, though the standard depends on the type of return and the circumstances surrounding the taxpayer, such as whether they’re under audit. It generally dumps individual tax returns after six years. Neal’s office cited that policy in explaining its decision to seek six years of returns.

Also, Trump’s financial disclosures show he has more than 500 partnerships and other types of businesses, and each of those would generally have its own return. Some want a thorough examination of those filings as well, though that threatened to bury Neal in paper. Democrats might have even sought First Lady Melania Trump’s returns in case they file separately but own businesses together.

Aside from Trump’s personal returns, Neal is demanding the president’s filings for eight other entities, including a trust and his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. The Ways and Means committee says five of those entities represent the “core of the president’s business empire.”

Neal also wants details of any IRS audits of Trump, saying he wants to know “the extent to which the IRS audits and enforces the federal tax laws against a president.”

A nearly century-old law allows the heads of Congress’s tax committees to examine anyone’s private tax information. The law stipulates the Treasury secretary “shall” turn over any requested returns. Experts say lawmakers can vote to make those returns public, though that would be highly unusual.

Democrats say the move is justified by Trump refusing to abide by a decades-old tradition of presidents voluntarily releasing their returns. Some liberals have complained for months that Neal has not moved quickly enough to get the president’s filings.

The administration is expected to fight the request in court; it has an incentive to delay, perhaps in hopes that Republicans retake the House in the 2020 elections.

Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Ways and Means panel, urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reject the request, calling it an “abuse” of the committee’s authority.

“Weaponizing our nation’s tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans privacy right,” the Texas Republican wrote in a letter to Mnuchin. “All Americans have a fundamental right to the privacy of the personal information found in their tax returns.”

Aaron Lorenzo contributed to this report.

