Democratic Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi expressed concern about the release of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday.
“I’m not thrilled about anyone’s tax returns being made public, whether it was the Republicans doing it to 50 private not-for-profit entities in 2014 or Donald Trump’s returns being released today,” Krishnamoorthi told MSNBC’s Ryan Nobles.
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After more than three years of litigation, the House Ways and Means Committee released Trump’s personal tax returns from the years 2013-18 on Friday. The records show that Trump paid small amounts of income taxes due to provisions in the tax code that allow individuals to write off and carry forward losses. (RELATED: Democrat-Led Committee Votes To Release Trump’s Tax Returns)
Krishnamoorthi argued that Trump’s returns show that the presidential auditing process “was completely broken.”
“It was supposed to mandatorily audit the president’s tax returns every year, but it only did so once and only after chairman Richie Neal took over the committee in 2019 and it was for a year before he became president. And then secondly, the IRS is just not equipped to deal with sophisticated taxpayers like Donald Trump. I think the internal records have revealed that.”
“The IRS didn’t feel that it could properly audit the 400 sub-returns that were indicated on Trump’s main 1040 tax return. And so I think it all speaks to the need for the IRS to get the resources they need to audit sophisticated taxpayers like Trump and, of course, now we’ll be looking at those tax returns for other issues as well,” he continued.
Republicans have unanimously panned the release of Trump’s tax returns. The former president called the move — the result of a party-line vote — “unconstitutional.”
“This is a regrettable stain on the Ways and Means Committee and Congress, and will make American politics even more divisive and disheartening,” outgoing Ways and Means Committee ranking member Republican Texas Rep. Kevin Brady said in a statement, according to Reuters.