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1 1 (April 4, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govzbv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ *Research Service Congressional Access to the President's Federal Tax Returns Updated April 4, 2019 UPDATE 4 4 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. The letter requested the delivery of such materials to the committee by April 10, 2019. 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 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. Congressional Committee Authority to Obtain Tax Returns In 1976, Congress amended Section 6103 of the IRC to establish that federal tax return information is confidential by default unless a statute expressly authorizes disclosure. Congress made these changes in part to curtail the President's authority to acquire tax return information in response to revelations that President Nixon sought to use tax return information for improper purposes. Specifically, Section 6103(a) states that individual and business tax returns, and the information in tax returns, are confidential, and officers or employees of the federal government, among others, may not disseminate those returns or the information therein for unauthorized purposes without the taxpayer's consent. Section 6103(b)(2)(A) defines return information to include, among other things, a taxpayer's identity, the nature, source, or amount of his income, payments, receipts, deductions, exemptions, credits, assets, liabilities, net worth, . . . or tax payment. This policy is bolstered by a series of statutes providing for criminal penalties and authorizing the taxpayer to bring a civil action for damages for unauthorized disclosures of return Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10275 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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