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US House moves to expand oversight after Trump tax revelations

US President Donald Trump at campaign rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US, August 2, 2018. (File photo by Reuters)

The United States House of Representatives has voted to expand oversight regarding presidents' tax payments after news came out that Donald Trump had not paid any income tax.

The Democratic-led House voted on Thursday to require the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to audit presidents’ tax filings after lawmakers concluded the agency did not properly examine Trump’s returns while he had been in office as the President of the United States.

Tax filings released on Tuesday by a House committee after a years-long legal battle, showed that then-President Trump paid no income tax in 2020, his final full year in office, despite millions of dollars in earnings from his sprawling business empire.

Read more:
US House committee votes to publicly release report on Trump tax returns

The House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee also pointed out that the IRS did not properly review Trump's returns while he was in office.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, who hails from the Democratic Party, said the new legislation to audit presidents’ tax filings aimed to strengthen presidential oversight, not target Trump. “This is not about a president; this is about the presidency going forward,” he said on the House floor.

However, Republicans argue that the legislation would set a dangerous precedent by making it easier for lawmakers to release private tax information.

“This will provide a dangerous new political weapon that invites political retribution,” said Representative Kevin Brady, the Ways and Means Committee’s top Republican.

The legislation, which passed on a largely party-line 222-201 vote on Thursday, faces long odds of passing the Senate and becoming law in the final days that Democrats control both chambers of Congress.

Trump’s fellow Republicans are due to take control of the House in January.


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