What do Donald Trump’s tax returns reveal about the former US president?

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All presidents of the United States in recent decades have released their tax returns to the public for scrutiny. It was just over. Then Donald Trump rolled in and despite saying he would comply, did everything in his power to avoid the process. He seems to be hiding something.

So until today, and a Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives committee decided to release the former presidents. Six years worth of information and a move that comes days before Republicans are supposed to control the chamber.

How did the Democrats release Trumps taxes?

The release of Trumps redacted returns for 2015 through 2020 caps a years-long battle between the Republican former president and Democratic lawmakers that was settled just last month by the US Supreme Court. It is the latest blow for Trump, 76, who has twice been impeached by the Democratic-led House only to be acquitted by the US Senate, and now faces a host of legal problems as he mounts a 2024 reelection bid.

Earlier this month, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters asked federal prosecutors to charge him with four crimes including obstruction and insurrection for his role in the deadly riot.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal requested the 2019 returns, arguing that Congress needs them to determine whether the president’s tax refund legislation is appropriate. Republicans said the move could lead to political weaponization of individual tax returns and warned that party members who take over the panel next month will face pressure to pursue a similar path against among high-profile Democrats.

Trump, who took office in 2017, sued the committee to try to keep them private but the US high court ruled in favor of the committees.

In a report last week, the committee outlined its findings from its review of documents, saying the Internal Revenue Service violated its own rules by failing to audit Trump for three of four years while he was president.

All you need to know about Trumps tax returns is that he defrauded a porn star and wrote it off as a business expense. What the couple really wanted to know was when the hell they were going to be indicted for stealing Top Secret Documents and Inciting an Armed Insurrection to Overthrow the US Government.

— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) December 28, 2022 How Trump avoided paying income tax

Details previously released by the panel showed that Trump paid no income tax in 2020, his last full year in office, despite millions of dollars in income from his vast business empire.

The records show significant changes in Trump’s income and tax liability from 2015 to 2020, during his first presidential bid and subsequent terms in office. They show that Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, claimed large deductions and losses and paid little or no income tax in several years. While the average American pays their fair share into the system, it turns out, unsurprisingly, that the self-confessed business genius is doing everything possible to avoid paying his fair share.

Democrats are on a tight timeline to find a way to handle the returns once they get them, as Republicans will take control of the House on Tuesday after winning a slim majority in the midterm elections in November. The Democratic-controlled House passed a bill before it left for its winter recess that would require the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes, to complete audits of presidents’ tax filings within 90 days of their inauguration.

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