Incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman will seek Trump tax returns

[bostonangler]

The battle over President Trump’s tax returns, which was fought through most of the 2016 campaign and periodically since then, is about to resume.

Hours after Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives, the man in line to chair the House Ways and Means Committee said in an interview that the committee would seek to obtain the president’s tax returns.

“Yes, I think we will,” Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., told MassLive on Wednesday. The chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is one of a few members of Congress with the power to request an individual tax return from the Internal Revenue Service.

Neal said he hoped that Trump would voluntarily release his tax documents before the committee is compelled to file a request for them.

“I think it’s is a reminder that it has to be done so that legally it meets the law. I think that  there are some precedents for this,” Neal said. “But, I hope that the president would do this on his own, largely because every president since Gerald R. Ford has voluntarily done this.”

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Neal is likely to be disappointed.

At a contentious White House news conference Wednesday, Trump made it clear that he had no intention of voluntarily disclosing his returns to members of the House.

“They’re under audit. They have been for a long time. They’re extremely complex, people wouldn’t understand them,” Trump said when asked if he might simply make the returns available to lawmakers. “They’re done by among the biggest and best law firms in the country, the same thing with the accounting firms. The accountants are a very large, powerful firm from the standpoint of respect. They’re highly respected. Big firm, a great law firm.”

Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

Trump is the first president in decades to withhold his tax returns from public view and Democrats believe that they could answer questions about his ties to the Russian government in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, as well as illuminate ways in which he and his family avoided enormous tax bills, as detailed in an explosive New York Times investigation.

As he has since the presidential campaign, Trump said Wednesday that an audit of his taxes by the Internal Revenue Service prevents him from releasing his returns. He acknowledged that there is no legal impediment to making them public, but insisted that his lawyers and accountants have advised him against it.

“When you’re under audit, and I’m under a very continuous audit, because there are so many companies and it is a big company, far bigger than you would even understand, but it’s a great company,” Trump said, adding, “But if I were finished with the audit, I would have an open mind to it, I would say that, but I don’t want to do it during the audit.”

Trump has not released any documents, such as a letter from the IRS, that would back up his claims to be under audit. It would not be unusual for the agency to examine the returns of someone of Trump’s wealth, although audits are usually closed after a period of years.

Neal predicted that a congressional request for the president’s tax returns would likely result in a court case.

Writing in Yale University’s Notice & Comment, Andy Grewal summed up the legal justification that Democrats in the House may use to support their request for Trump’s tax documents.

“The statutory authority for any congressional requests would probably come from Sections 6103(f)(1) & (2) of the tax code. Under (f)(1), some committees of Congress can request disclosure of Trump’s returns and can examine those returns privately. Under (f)(2), a non-partisan career official, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), may also request and privately examine those returns,” Grewal wrote. 

He noted, though, that courts have ruled that a request to see returns must serve a public, not just a political, purpose.

When the new members of Congress are sworn in next January, Neal will likely assume his new role on the Ways and Means Committee.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/incoming-house-ways-means-committee-chairman-will-seek-trump-tax-returns-225857605.html

 

 

You have to wonder what he is hiding...

B/A

[SgtFuryUSCZ]

 Still beating that 'ol thing to death...?

He doesn't HAVE to release squat !

Ya'll well into the stank of desperation with THAT old song.....

 

.

[Shabibilicious]

1 minute ago, SgtFuryUSCZ said:

 Still beating that 'ol thing to death...?

He doesn't HAVE to release squat !

Ya'll well into the stank of desperation with THAT old song.....

 

.

 

You're correct....he doesn't have to release his tax returns.....but the IRS does if subpoenaed by house committee.  Donald needn't worry, it's out of his hands.  Seems that horse may not be as dead as you think, ancientgenarians.

 

Fox News:  Judge Napolitano Explains Trump Tax Return Dilemma

 

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/fox-news-shep-smith-and-judge-napolitano-explain-why-trump-must-fear-democrats

 

 

GO RV, then BV

[bostonangler]

48 minutes ago, SgtFuryUSCZ said:

 Still beating that 'ol thing to death...?

He doesn't HAVE to release squat !

Ya'll well into the stank of desperation with THAT old song.....

 

.

 

But aren't you curious to what he is hiding? I mean if they asked for mine, I wouldn't be afraid.

B/A

[Markinsa]

4 hours ago, bostonangler said:

You have to wonder what he is hiding...

B/A

 

Really? If he has done something illegal you won't find it on his tax returns. How stupid can a person be to believe that they are going find something by looking at his audited by the IRS tax returns???

.

[bostonangler]

1 minute ago, Markinsa said:

 

Really? If he has done something illegal you won't find it on his tax returns. How stupid can a person be to believe that they are going find something by looking at his audited by the IRS tax returns???

.

 

So what's the big deal? Is he really not worth billions? Did he get loans from overseas? I don't know, but if it was a good thing, he would be shouting it... He is big at presenting good things about himself, but yet he is hiding this... I am not saying there is anything illegal, but maybe something embarrassing... Who knows?

 

B/A

[Markinsa]

10 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

So what's the big deal? Is he really not worth billions? Did he get loans from overseas? I don't know, but if it was a good thing, he would be shouting it... He is big at presenting good things about himself, but yet he is hiding this... I am not saying there is anything illegal, but maybe something embarrassing... Who knows?

 

B/A

 

I guess you would like to see nude photos of him too.  Give the man a break, let him do his job...

 

.

[bostonangler]

2 minutes ago, Markinsa said:

 

I guess you would like to see nude photos of him too.  Give the man a break, let him do his job...

 

.

 

Nah, I don't really care to see his taxes... I just wonder why he isn't proud to show off his billions... He likes to show off... I just think it's weird. As for doing his job, he has had some good successes, but he tweets too much and it is a distraction from his positives.

 

B/A

[Theseus]

12 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

 

Nah, I don't really care to see his taxes... I just wonder why he isn't proud to show off his billions... He likes to show off... I just think it's weird. As for doing his job, he has had some good successes, but he tweets too much and it is a distraction from his positives.

 

B/A

Good luck when this RVs because you will be out showing off your money. That horse done sailed. How many times will you have to change your address, your phone number, your name etc. No millionaire or billionaire shows off their money. Only the left and the lamestream media are obsessed with the amount Trump makes. Who the eff cares? The BS that Buffet had a lower tax rate than his secretary was absolute bull cocky because Buffet had a Capital Gains tax and his secretary had an earned income tax. WHy bring this up? You are about to find out when this RVs. WHo cares what someone makes, unless of course it's my wife and I am getting alimony from her. Then I am retiring on her dime!

 

As ar as tweeting goes, great, he is using the tool as it should be used. The fake news and negative reporting have to be circumvented and what better way than SM. Don't like his tweets, don't subscribe to them. Again I prefer his tweets to the news media narrative that is blatantly spun towards a negative. The last 90 days the economy was talked about very little in the media. 

Edited November 8, 2018 by Theseus

[bostonangler]

17 minutes ago, Theseus said:

Good luck when this RVs because you will be out showing off your money. That horse done sailed. How many times will you have to change your address, your phone number, your name etc. No millionaire or billionaire shows off their money. Only the left and the lamestream media are obsessed with the amount Trump makes. Who the eff cares? The BS that Buffet had a lower tax rate than his secretary was absolute bull cocky because Buffet had a Capital Gains tax and his secretary had an earned income tax. WHy bring this up? You are about to find out when this RVs. WHo cares what someone makes, unless of course it's my wife and I am getting alimony from her. Then I am retiring on her dime!

 

As ar as tweeting goes, great, he is using the tool as it should be used. The fake news and negative reporting have to be circumvented and what better way than SM. Don't like his tweets, don't subscribe to them. Again I prefer his tweets to the news media narrative that is blatantly spun towards a negative. The last 90 days the economy was talked about very little in the media. 

 

Theseus, I'm surprised by your response. I said I personally could care less about his taxes. I simply said I find it interesting that he isn't proud to show them off, like everything in his life. Be honest, he loves to brag, so this just seems outside his personality...

 

As for Buffet, go look it up. I posted a very interesting interview with him the other day. Maybe you missed it. His explanation on his taxes was quite informing. It wasn't some news report, it was actually him talking. Nothing fake about it.

 

I hope you are right about me finding out when this RVs... Hopefully that will be SOON...

 

Tweeting, Facebook, Instagram... These are tools, but not tools for good. They are proving to be the downfall of man. I worked with an elderly woman several years ago. She is very bright and very astute. She once told me at lunch that the internet was the antichrist. I laughed and thought she doesn't get it... But years later, I think she was close, it's not the internet, but social media that is killing society.

 

Of course I don't subscribe to his feed or anyone else's feed. I don't subscribe to sports teams, news feeds, friends, relatives or any other social media feeds. I simply do not have time to keep up with the thousands of things put out all day every day. I have friends who can not have a conversation for 5 minutes without checking their "feeds"... I don't want to be that person. Last night I had a friend freak out on me for not answering my phone. I told him, I was walking my dog and don't take my phone with me. He could not understand how I could go walk my dog down the street for 15 minutes and not take my phone. 

 

B/A

[MyLadiesDaddy]

2 hours ago, Markinsa said:

 

I guess you would like to see nude photos of him too.  Give the man a break, let him do his job...

 

.

Shabbs would!With naked Russian Babes peeing on the bed. 

[Shabibilicious]

17 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Shabbs would!With naked Russian Babes peeing on the bed. 

Careful what you wish for, brother.  

 

GO RV, then BV