Washington: Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday (local time) said Democrats will not get to see President Donald Trump’s tax returns, as they want to create “attention” on the matter.
“Nor should they (obtain the documents). That’s an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn’t, and they elected him anyway,” The Hill quoted Mulvaney saying while speaking to Fox News Sunday.
“They (Democrats) know they’re not going to get the tax returns. They just want attention on the issue because they don’t want to talk to us about policy,” he added.
Continuing to attack the Democrats, Mulvaney said that the Democrats “know what the law is” and would never attempt to access Trump’s tax returns.
“They know one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes. They know that. They know the terms under the law by which the IRS can give them the documents, but political hit job is not one of those reasons,” he said.
On Wednesday, House Democrats formally requested the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to hand over six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns by next week.
According to The New York Times, Representative Richard E. Neal issued a two-page letter in which he told IRS commissioner, Charles P. Rettig, “Under the Internal Revenue Manual, individual income tax returns of a President are subject to mandatory examination, but this practice is IRS policy and not codified in the Federal tax laws.”
“It is necessary for the Committee to determine the scope of any such examination and whether it includes a review of underlying business activities required to be reported on the individual income tax return,” Neal said.
“Pursuant to my authority under Internal Revenue Code section 6103(f), for each of the tax years 2013 through 2018, I request the following return and return information,” he added.
Neal gave the Revenue department until April 10 to comply with the request.
Democrats anticipate that the Trump administration will object to the request and force the matter into the courts, where a formal judgment in the matter could take months or longer.
After becoming a Presidential candidate in 2016, Trump has refused to release any of his tax returns, saying that he is under audit.
Democrats suspect that the tax information could reveal evidence of alleged wrongdoings by Trump.
Democrats have made tax information one of their top priorities after taking control of the House of Representatives in January.
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