Congressional Access to the President’s Federal Tax Returns

"UPDATE 5/7/2019:
On April 3, 2019, the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service requesting the individual income tax returns of President Trump, income tax returns for various business entities related to President Trump, and additional administrative files and audit information relating to such returns. The request covers returns filed for tax years 2013 through 2018.

On May 6, 2019, the Secretary of the Treasury informed the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee that, on the advice of the Department of Justice, he will not release the President’s tax return information because “the Committee’s request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” The Secretary also stated that the Department of Justice will publicly release its legal reasoning on the subject “as soon as practicable.”

The original post from March 15, 2019 follows below.

The Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee is reportedly preparing to send a request to the Treasury Department’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to obtain President Trump’s federal tax returns. This request appears prompted by the President’s departure from the past practice of sitting presidents and presidential candidates voluntarily disclosing their recent tax returns. This Sidebar analyzes the ability of Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov LSB10275 Congressional Research Service 2 a congressional committee to obtain the President’s tax returns under provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC); whether the President or the Treasury Secretary might have a legal basis for denying a committee request for the returns; and, if a committee successfully acquires the returns, whether those returns legally could be disclosed to the public..."
President's tax returns