The House Ways and Means Committee on Friday released six years of former president Trump’s federal tax returns after an arduous legal tug-of-war.
Trump slammed the decision, alleging that the Democrats have “weaponized everything” and warning that such aggressive action against political adversaries is a “two-way street.”
“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” the former president said in a statement, CBS reported. “The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
The team returns detailed the income, expenses, profits, and losses generated from Trump’s assets and business entities, as well as foreign tax credits and the tax credits he claimed on his businesses. Among the ventures were international real estate projects and aviation companies.
The records show that Trump held a number of foreign bank accounts, including one in China between 2015 and 2017, according to Schedule B Part III “Foreign Accounts and Trusts.” He also held accounts in Ireland and United Kingdom, where he has golf clubs. Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten claimed in 2020 that the China bank account was affiliated with his hotel management work abroad.
In 2020, the last year of his presidency, Trump paid $271,973 in taxes, presumably because he appeared to claim millions of dollars of losses.
In a video statement posted last Friday to Truth Social, Trump said the compelled disclosure of his tax returns was an “outrageous abuse of power” and “completely unconstitutional.” He lamented that the move is another demonstration of the government’s targeting of him since he entered the political scene in 2016.
“There is no legitimate legislative purpose for their action. And if you look at what they’ve done, it’s so sad for our country,” Trump said. “It’s nothing but another deranged political witch hunt which has been going on from the day I came down an escalator in Trump Tower.”
The battle for the documents began when the Ways and Means Committee chairman, Representative Richard Neal (D., Mass.), sued the Treasury Department in 2019 to acquire them. Trump departed from the norm when he refused to reveal his tax returns, which presidents have historically made public voluntarily. The committee requested the returns by invoking the authority of section 6103 of the U.S. tax code, which allows state agencies responsible for tax administration to access tax filings.
In November, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s petition to prevent Congress from obtaining his tax returns, allowing the committee to get ahold of them before the new GOP majority assumed control of the chamber.