House passes bill requiring presidential tax audits aft..Trump skirted scrutiny

Source: The Hill | December 22, 2022 | Mychael Schnell

House passes bill requiring presidential tax audits after revelation Trump skirted scrutiny

The House on Thursday passed a bill that would require annual audits of the president’s tax returns, codifying IRS policy after a congressional committee revealed that the agency did not audit former President Trump during two years he was in office.

The legislation, titled the Presidential Tax Filings and Audit Transparency Act, passed in a 222-201 vote. Five Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure: Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Liz Cheney (Wyo.), John Katko (N.Y.) and Tom Rice (S.C.).

IRS policy requires that sitting presidents are audited every year — which has been the case since 1977 — but the terms are outlined in the agency’s regulatory manual, not federal law. The bill at hand would codify those terms into law.

The House took up the bill after the House Ways and Means Committee voted on Tuesday to release the report of its investigation into how the IRS’s mandatory audit program was run under the Trump administration. The vote also greenlighted the release of six years of Trump’s tax returns, but they have not yet been published because officials are making redactions.

The report revealed that the IRS did not audit Trump in 2017 and 2018, despite the agency’s mandatory audit program for occupants of the White House. The then-president filed tax returns in 2017 and 2018, but the agency first audited him in 2019. The agency opened the examination on April 3 of that year — the same day Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the chair of the committee, asked then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig for the president’s tax returns.

The legislation considered on Thursday specifically calls for audits of presidential tax returns and those of other entities controlled by the commander in chief to be carried out as quickly as possible after the information is filed. Additionally, the bill would mandate that the president’s tax returns are disclosed within 90 days of them being filed.

……..

Tagged: , ,

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.