WASHINGTON: Democrats in Congress released six years of Donald Trump’s tax records to the public on Friday, disclosing documents the former president long sought to keep secret and dealing another setback as he again seeks the White House in 2024.

A Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives committee released Trump’s redacted returns for 2015 through 2020, capping a multi-year battle between the Republican former president and Democratic lawmakers that was settled only last month by the US Supreme Court.

Details released by the panel showed Trump paid no income tax in 2020, his final full year in office, despite millions of dollars in earnings from his sprawling business empire.

In response, Trump warned of dire consequences and used the occasion to seek campaign donations.

US House committee releases ex-president’s tax returns he sought to keep secret

Trump’s tax data will now be available for in-depth investigations by journalists, independent tax experts and others during the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, and could shed light on Trump’s wealth, his businesses’ performance and how he reduced his tax liability.

The nearly 6,000 pages of records include over 2,700 pages of personal returns from Trump and his wife Melania Trump, plus more than 3,000 pages of returns from his businesses.

The records show Trump’s income and tax liability fluctuated dramatically from 2015 through 2020, during his first presidential bid and subsequent term in office. They show that Trump and his wife Melania claimed large deductions and losses and paid little or no income tax in several of those years.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal requested the returns in 2019, arguing that Congress needed to see them to determine if legislation on presidential returns was needed.

Democrats were on a tight timeline to find a way to handle the returns once they obtained them, given that Republicans will take control of the House on Jan 3 after winning a slim margin in November’s midterm elections.

The Democrat-controlled House passed a bill before it left on its winter recess that would mandate the IRS to complete audits of presidents’ tax filings within 90 days of their inauguration.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022