or the former president of the United States, Donald TrumpThe US Congress cannot be denied access to its tax returns, according to a lower court ruling announced Tuesday.
Washington, DC federal court judge Trevor McFadden said Trump had no legal reason to prevent the House Budget and Finance Committee from fulfilling one of its tasks — to investigate whether the IRS had the necessary conditions.The financial arrogance of American presidents, or whether it is necessary to change the legislation to further this task.
The order to hand over the documents has been suspended for 14 days, until Trump can appeal the decision.
In the same ruling, Judge McFadden (who was appointed by Trump in 2017 to his current position in US courts) said that the Committee on Budget and Finance has the authority to publicly disclose the tax records of the former US president.
But he emphasized the point that the commission can do its work without revealing Trump tax returnsAnd he warned that any decision in this sense would be seen as an act of retaliation against a political opponent.
The committee chair, Congressman Richard Neil (Democrat), welcomed the lower court’s decision and said the House is “one step closer to being able to oversee mandatory IRS audits.” [a autoridade tributária dos EUA] to the chiefs.
imitation of transparency
The legal battle between Trump and the Budget and Finance Committee has continued since 2019, since the Democratic Party took a majority in the House of Representatives. At the time, the commission required access to the tax records of the then US president, and the court’s first decision was only announced this week.
According to Judge McFadden, the interest expressed by the Budget and Finance Committee in assessing whether it was necessary to tighten the legislation outweighs any interest that Trump has as a former president of the United States.
The House of Representatives accessing the tax returns of US presidents and issuing those statements for the entire country to consult are two different things.
US law does not require US presidents to disclose tax records. But Trump was the first to refuse to abide by a tradition dating back to Richard Nixon’s presidency 50 years ago.
At that time, Nixon released his tax returns after US newspapers reported That the then US president paid only $789 (€700) in 1970 and 878 US dollars (778 euros) in 1971, despite the declaration of income in excess of 200,000 dollars (177,000 euros).
Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, released a summary of his contributions when he entered the White House; And since Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976, every candidate for president and vice president of the United States has released their tax returns to the general public—a tradition that Trump broke and Joe Biden adopted.
According to official recordsIn 2009, Barack Obama was the highest-paid US president in his first year in office – $1.8 million (€1.6 million) in 2009, largely due to $5.5 million (€4.9 million) which he received in return for the books he wrote.
According to a press investigation The New York TimesDonald Trump paid $750 (665 euros) in federal taxes in his first year in office, in 2017.
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