Trump’s Tax Returns Requested by House Panel Chair

Representative Richard Neal invoked law that allows House Ways and Means Committee chair to obtain any person’s tax information.

The chairman of the House tax-writing committee formally requested President Trump’s tax returns on Wednesday, kicking off what could be a bruising legal fight between Congress and the Trump administration.

In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.) asked for six years of Mr. Trump’s personal returns and some of his business returns, invoking a federal law that allows the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to seek any person’s tax information.

Mr. Trump, breaking with four decades of tradition from presidents and major-party presidential candidates, hasn’t released any tax returns voluntarily, despite saying repeatedly during the presidential campaign that he would do so.

“We’re under audit, despite what people said, and we’re working that out,” he told reporters Wednesday evening at the White House. “I’ve been under audit for many years because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name you’re audited. But until such time as I’m not under audit I would not be inclined” to release the returns.

He didn’t say explicitly whether he was ordering IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to refuse Mr. Neal’s request. That is the step that would begin a legal tussle between the branches of government.

As president, Mr. Trump is under mandatory IRS audit under the agency’s procedural manual. He has said the audits date from before he ran for office. However, the law that Mr. Neal invoked says the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” any returns requested by the Ways and Means chairman, regardless of whether a taxpayer is president or is under audit. In fact, it is the existence of the mandatory presidential audit that is the legal basis for Mr. Neal’s request, so the committee can examine whether the IRS is doing that job well.