The House Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday evening to make redacted public versions of former President Donald Trump’s federal income tax returns filed while he was running for and serving in the White House.
According to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass, it will take “a few days” to remove some sensitive information before releasing Trump’s returns and those of eight affiliated Trump businesses.
The notes from IRS audits of the returns are among the records set for release.
Later Tuesday evening, a 29-page report on Trump’s taxes was released.
The Democratic-controlled committee approved the release of the returns and report by a vote of 24-16. Before the vote, the panel met in an executive session for more than four hours to discuss whether and how the tax returns should be made public.
The committee received the tax records, which cover the years 2015 to 2020, from the Internal Revenue Service last month, following a three-year legal battle over Trump’s objections.
Neal previously stated that the records would be used to assess how the IRS audits the tax returns of sitting presidents each year.
Trump defied decades of political tradition by refusing to release his tax returns as a candidate and president.
According to the New York Times, the billionaire real estate developer paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the same amount the following year.
After obtaining his tax returns, Trump paid no income tax in 11 of the 18 years examined by the Times.
Tuesday’s vote was the latest in a string of setbacks for Trump, who announced last month that he would run for the Republican presidential nomination.
On Monday, a House committee unanimously voted to refer Trump to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation and possible prosecution for his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, which included pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify several states’ Electoral College slates.
According to Neal, following Tuesday’s vote, lawmakers will have two days to file supplemental information or objections to the panel’s report on the returns.
