GOP warns of Trump tax release blowback

WASHINGTON — Democrats’ plans to release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns could be the start of a tit-for-tat battle using Internal Revenue Service documents to target political foes, a Republican aide said.

Republicans who will take charge of the House Ways and Means Committee in January will face pressure to retaliate by publishing the tax records of Democrats and their allies, the aide said on condition of anonymity, arguing that Democrats may end up regretting the move.

The threat of retribution comes a day before Democrats are scheduled to release six years of Trump’s personal and business tax records, the culmination of a years-long effort to make the former president’s tax information public.

The former president was under no legal obligation to release his tax returns.

Federal tax laws permit the chairman of the congressional tax committees to request, and vote to release, the tax returns of any taxpayer, including the president.

House Democrats voted last week to release Trump’s tax returns, which they said initially was to investigate the IRS’ annual audit of the president. Democrats released a report, along with topline information from Trump’s tax records, that showed the IRS hadn’t completed an audit of Trump while he was in the White House, even though that’s common practice.

The documents also showed Trump’s businesses lost tens of millions of dollars while he was campaigning for president and in office. Personally, Trump paid very little in federal income taxes in several of the years between 2015 and 2020, including nothing one year.

The tax documents to be released today will give more information about the sources of his income, the deductions he claimed and his charitable contributions.