Five House Republicans joined the Democrats on Thursday in voting for a bill that provides for annual audits of the incumbent president’s tax returns. This proposal was discussed in the chamber after a congressional committee found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had failed to audit former President Trump’s tax returns for two years of his tenure in the White House.
The House of Representatives approved the measure, titled the Presidential Tax Filings and Audit Transparency Act, by 222 votes to 201. The legislation provides for a codification of current IRS policy, which requires that presidents be audited every year they serve in the White House.
The current regulations are set out in the agency’s regulatory handbook and not in federal law. The legislation would codify the principles.
Republican MPs Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Liz Cheney (Wyo.), John Katko (New York) and Tom Rice (S.C.) joined all voting Democrats and supported the measure.
None of the Republicans will return to Congress next year after losing the re-election bids or choosing not to serve another term.
Upton said Trump’s failure to publish his tax returns throughout his presidency prompted him to vote for the bill.
“What drove me was I remember his statement from 2016 when he said I was paraphrasing when he said that if he was the candidate, he would publish his taxes,” Upton told CNNBreakingNews.
“So it was six years ago. And I understand that the IRS probably dropped the ball, based on what I read this morning, but he said he’d do it. So things are working out,” he added.
The Michigan Republican said there should be a mechanism in place that mandates presidential tax audits.
Trump said for years that he could not publish his taxes because they would be subject to a routine audit and promised to disclose the records once the audit was complete. However, the information was never published.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday to publish its investigation into the IRS’s mandatory audit program under the Trump administration. It was found that the authority did not audit the then president’s tax returns in 2017 or 2018.
The authority only selected Trump for an audit on April 3, 2019. That was the same day that Representative Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, asked the then-IRS Commissioner for Trump’s tax returns.
The panel is also expected to release Trump’s six-year tax returns after Tuesday’s vote. However, these documents are currently being redacted and have not yet been published.