Another blow for Donald Trump: Ex-US President should disclose tax documents

Created: 12/21/2022, 06:18 am

Former US President Donald Trump © Andrew Harnik/dpa

For years, former US President Trump has resisted making his tax records public.

Now he has drawn the short straw in the dispute.

Washington – Sensitive defeat for Donald Trump: A US Congressional committee voted on Tuesday (December 20) to publish ex-US President Trump's tax returns.

The House Tax Policy Committee voted 24 to 16 to release Trump's 2015-2020 tax returns.

This ends a year-long dispute with the former head of state over the release of the documents.

Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974) to refuse to disclose his tax returns.

This led to speculation that the very rich real estate entrepreneur had something to hide.

Donald Trump: Congressional Committee votes to release his tax returns

In November, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of Trump's tax returns after a year-long legal battle.

The tax authority IRS subsequently handed over the documents for the years 2015 to 2020 to the Tax Policy Committee.

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Actually, the tax returns are confidential.

The committee, controlled by President Joe Biden's Democrats, had argued that it needed the documents to understand how well tax authorities could scrutinize presidential finances.

Trump, on the other hand, accuses MPs of pursuing purely political goals.

Voting to publish the documents is one of the last official acts of the committee in this composition.

The new parliamentary year begins on January 3rd.

In the future Congress, the Republicans will have a majority in the House of Representatives - and thus also control the committee responsible for tax policy