(FreedomBeacon.com)- The House Ways and Means Committee plans to release former President Trump’s tax returns by Friday after it voted last week to make them public.
Last Tuesday, in a party-line vote of 24 to 16, the committee voted to release portions from six years of Trump’s tax returns.
Initially, the committee planned to release the documents as earlier as last Wednesday but delayed disclosure to give staffers time to complete the redaction of sensitive personal information from the documents, like Social Security numbers.
Instead, the former president’s personal tax returns and some of his business returns are expected to be recorded in the Congressional Record on Friday during the House’s pro forma session, according to CNN.
The committee obtained the returns last month after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final attempt to block their release, ending his years-long battle to prevent House Democrats from obtaining the records.
Trump’s refusal to turn over his tax returns to the Democrat-controlled committee naturally led to suspicions that he was trying to hide something. Speculation ran rampant, with some suggesting Trump’s returns revealed shady foreign business deals while others surmised that the returns would reveal that the billionaire businessman wasn’t as wealthy as he boasted.
A 39-page report from the Joint Committee on Taxation revealed that the former president paid relatively little in federal income tax in both 2016 and 2017, and paid none in 2020.
The report, released last week, also found that despite an IRS policy that presidents should undergo mandatory audits, the agency didn’t begin its review of Trump’s tax returns until after the Ways and Means Committee asked for details about the mandatory audits in 2019.
Last Tuesday, Ways and Means Committee outgoing chair Richard Neal (D-MA) called for legislation that would require annual audits of a president’s taxes.
Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urged the House to take up the legislation quickly since Republicans will take control of the chamber next week.
