they become, take the oval office. according to the committee that did not happen with donald trump. in fact they say in april 2019 donald trump was, an audit began over donald trump s returns and that only became a thing sent a letter to the irs at that exact time, it will 2019, asking about those they said then that is when the audit started over donald trump s returns. then they said it was an audit that never was completed. all those returns, those six years of returns that they have obtained, the audits were not actually completed for donald trump and i also asked about the contingent of trump that he said he is always under audit. he has never seen an audit completed. neil declined to comment on that specifically. he said that this is an issue we are still looking through as well. one other point i asked chairman neill and republican top republican concerning in those returns,
he was putting numbers on the page, and wanting the irs to look at that. the larger takeaway here is the other part of what you were getting into which is the irs has rules that say that sitting presidents and vice presidents must be audited every year. the irs, under the trump administration s control did not do that in 2017, and did not do that in 2018, and only started looking at the first of his tax returns in april 2019, the very same day that house democrats on the weighs and means committee sent a request to the treasury department for data about his taxes and any associated audits. there s clearly deep dysfunction at a minimum at the irs in the auditing program, and the reason that is important is because committee democrats said they were looking at the taxes and needed to look at the program to see if it s strong enough and all along trump s lawyers said
not released his tax turns returns. he said repeatedly, and being audited so i can t. then we offered this classic one quote, i don t think anybody cares. it was this one, quote the only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters. he even said a handful of times quote, there s nothing to learn from them. now house democrats did not agree with any of that. in fact, during his presidency there were multiple house committee requests of trump s tax returns all to no avail. but one committee, the ways and means committee, a very powerful committee in congress, because it is a committee that oversees tax policies in taxes in general gum, they had something other committees did not have. it is written in federal law that the chairman could request any taxpayers tax returns. so they had the law on their side with their requests. in april, 2019 in the house
he said repeatedly, and being audited so i can t. then he offered this classic one quote, i don t think anybody cares. it was this one quote, the only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters. he even said a handful of times quote, there s nothing to learn from them. now house democrats did not agree with any of that. in fact, during his presidency there were multiple house committee requests of trump s tax returns all to no avail. but one committee, the ways and means committee, a very powerful committee in congress, because it is a committee that oversees tax policies in taxes in general, they had something other committees did not have. it is written in federal law that the chairman could request any taxpayers tax returns. so, they had the law on their side with their requests. in april, 2019 when the house ways and means committee s chairs requested six years of
not have. it a written in federal law that the chairman could request any taxpayers tax returns. so, they had the law on their side with their request. inr april, 2019, when the hous ways and means committee chair requested six years of then president donald trump and his enterprise tax returns, it seemed like at the time an open andat shut case. chairman richard neal explained at the time that his committee needs to request trump s tax returns for quote, legitimate, legislative, legal and oversight purposes. to examine the tax returns of sitting presidents to see what, if any, laws needed to be amended or clarified. to no one s surprise, the trump treasury department refused to hand them over. and as you can imagine, a legal battle ensued. but then something happened in 2021. a new president took office. and the deal was reached for the committee to finally get those