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Democrats are racing to release information about former President Donald Trump's taxes before Republicans take control of Congress early next year. Politico reported Friday that the House Ways and Means Committee will meet privately Tuesday at 3 p.m. to review the tax documents and vote on whether all or a portion of Trump's tax returns will be publicly released. After a lengthy legal battle, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal got his hands on Trump's tax returns in November.... ...They consist of Trump's personal returns and returns from eight business entities, Politico said. Democrats believe they're on solid...

Democratic Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts suggested that the House would increase tax rates if his party remains in power following the upcoming midterm elections this fall, according to a congressional reporter. Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Democrats, should they keep power in the House, will look to raise corporate and individual tax rates in 2023, according to a Bloomberg reporter. The Inflation Reduction Act, a social spending and tax increase measure that is expected to pass in the House on Friday, includes a proposed expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The expansion...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday criticized a proposal to increase the amount of information the IRS receives about bank accounts, saying he thinks it is unlikely to be included in Democrats' social spending package. "I think that one's going to be gone," Manchin said at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Democrats are considering the IRS bank-reporting proposal as a way to raise revenue to finance their social spending measure. It would require banks to report to the IRS the total amount of money that came in and out of an account during a year....

House Democrats want to raise the corporate rate to 26.5 percent as part of nearly $3 trillion in tax increases to defray the cost of their next big spending package, while boosting to top rate for individuals to 39.6 percent. The Ways and Means Committee is also planning to call for a new 3 percent surtax on people making more than $5 million, sources familiar with Chair Richard Neal’s still-unreleased plan say, as well as increasing the top capital gains rate to 28.8 percent from 23.8 percent . Neal also wants to raise taxes on multinational corporations’ overseas profits, tighten...

'Squad' bill not tied with other coronavirus aid, unlike bill introduced by Rep. Richard Neal ------ Members of the progressive "Squad" in the House on Thursday introduced their own bill to send $2,000 stimulus checks to Americans after President Trump this week demanded the $600 checks included in Congress' stimulus deal be increased to that number. The legislation was spearheaded by Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal D-Wash. It came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will meet on Monday to vote on stand-alone legislation for $2,000...

Neal beats back primary challenge from progressive Alex Morse in Massachusetts BY MAX GREENWOOD - 09/01/20 09:44 PM EDT 53 166 Rep. Stephen Lynch beats back progressive challenger in Massachusetts Neal beats back primary challenge from progressive Alex Morse in Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, fended off a primary challenge from Holyoke, Mass., Mayor Alex Morse on Tuesday in a blow to progressives who had hoped to unseat the longtime incumbent. The Associated Press called the race for Neal just before 9:45 p.m. local time. The incumbent was ahead by...

Edward Markey appears headed for a bruising defeat unless he can turn around his struggling campaign in the next two months — a difficult ask for a 73-year-old incumbent running against a well-funded young heir to a political dynasty. The latest developments are not good for Markey — and we’re not even talking about his staggeringly stupid decision to pose on his porch with an American flag on the floor. Democratic sources say two new polls in separate congressional districts show Markey trailing U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III by double digits. One of the polls was from a Democratic...

A federal judge on Friday issued a stay of House Democrats' lawsuit aimed at obtaining President Trump's tax returns, after an appeals court agreed to rehear a different case that touches on some of the same legal issues. Judge Trevor McFadden, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., and a Trump appointee, said in a court filing that the tax-return case is on hold "pending further order of this Court." McFadden had initially put the case on hold in January, until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in a separate lawsuit over House Democrats' subpoena...

As the nation fixates on an intelligence whistleblower and what they may or may not know about Donald Trump's call with the Ukrainian President, another whistleblower is waiting in the wings. A federal employee told the Ways and Means Committee last month of possible evidence of 'improper influence' in the IRS's audit of Trump's tax returns. The existence of the whistleblower was contained in a quietly-filed motion by committee chair Richard Neal to a federal judge in an attempt to get hold of the President's tax returns, and was not widely reported at the time.

House Democrats are looking to speed up their lawsuit against the Treasury Department and IRS over their refusal to turn over President Trump's tax returns. The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday filed a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C., for summary judgment, asking Judge Trevor McFadden to direct Treasury and the IRS to comply with the committee's requests and subpoenas for six years of the president's federal tax returns. The committee also asked McFadden, a Trump appointee, to consider the case on an expedited basis, proposing a schedule under which briefs on relevant issues would be...

When we recently looked at Congressman Richard Neal’s refusal to request President Trump’s New York State tax returns (and the subsequent primary challenge he drew), Neal seemed to be making a good point. The state tax returns would only be a course of last resort if they failed to obtain the federal returns, and it wasn’t a sure thing that he would be able to use the new law in New York to get them anyway.That turned out to be fairly prescient because the New York law designed to go after Trump is now being challenged by the President....

As we discussed here recently, New York State passed a special law aimed squarely at Donald Trump (which is likely an unconstitutional bill of attainder) that would allow the release of President Trump’s New York State tax returns. Beyond the constitutional questions, there was one other small hitch in this scheme. The law wouldn’t allow New York to expose them or do much of anything with the documents. It would only allow their release to specific committees in Congress. And in order for that to happen, somebody would have to ask for them.Well, that still hasn’t happened. The “somebody”...

The only Democrat who can legally demand to see Donald Trump’s tax records has come under fire from colleagues for not using the newest tool in the bag to get them. Ways and Means chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-NY) has already invoked 26 USC 6103 and gone to federal court to exercise his oversight authority over the Treasury to review Trump’s returns. Supposedly, Andrew Cuomo handed Neal the keys by signing a law making presidential tax returns accessible by chairs of three congressional committees.Instead, NBC reports, Neal has refused to act under that authority — and that has his...

Full title: Hans von Spakovsky: Congress has no right to Trump tax returns – Justice Department makes right decision President Trump won a victory Friday when the Justice Department said Congress does not have the right to see his tax returns. More importantly, all American taxpayers won a victory, because the Justice Department memo regarding Trump’s returns has the effect of upholding the privacy and confidentially of all our tax returns as well. If Congress is allowed to examine the president’s tax returns, the next step will be demands by lawmakers to examine the tax returns of others – political...

The Trump administration isn’t backing down from their war with House Democrats. We all saw this coming miles away. The Trump administration partially based on the fact that this was a crew that was going to fight for the forgotten American and they have. The House Democratic majority was elected in 2018 to fight the Trump agenda. There is no room for cooperation. There is no room for compromise. In other words, it’s what I love about our political system: conflict. Gridlock is a good thing. Division and partisanship is a good thing, and the more of it, the more...

Former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) turned up in Washington on Wednesday for a Ways and Means hearing on climate change — even though Democrats fearful he could use the event to bolster a reelection run had removed him from the witness list. Curbelo went to the hearing anyway, and before it began told reporters his removal was a reflection of what is wrong with Washington. “What it has done is expose, again, the reason why things don't get done here, and why the big issues don't get resolved. Because too many people are focused on their own personal political...

Full title: Hans von Spakovsky: NY Times publication of Trump tax information violates his legal right to confidentialityThe New York Times no doubt considers it quite a coup to have obtained and published President Trump’s tax return information from 1985 to 1994. But doing so violated Trump’s right under federal law to the confidentiality of his tax returns. The Times – which reported that Trump’s businesses lost $1.17 billion during the 10-year period – has no more right to Trump’s tax returns than it has to mine or those of any of you reading these words. Confidentiality, as the Ninth...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday told House Democrats he would not furnish President Trump’s tax returns despite their legal request, the latest move by Trump administration officials to shield the president from congressional investigations. Mnuchin, in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), said he had consulted with the Justice Department and that they had concluded that it would not be lawful for the Trump administration to turn over the tax returns because of potential violations of privacy. Mnuchin added that requests from Congress “must reasonable serve a legitimate legislative purpose” and that the...

FULL TITLE: House Democrats give IRS hard deadline of April 23 to turn over Trump tax returns, say administration’s concerns ‘lack merit’ House Democrats are giving the Trump administration a hard-deadline of April 23 to turn over President Trump’s tax returns, pushing back against Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s skepticism over their request for the presidents’ private records. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) on Saturday sent a two-page letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig rebuffing Mnuchin’s statement earlier this week that Treasury would miss House Democrats’ initial April 10 deadline for the returns. Mnuchin’s concerns “lack...

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal is not backing down on his request for six years of the President Donald Trump's personal and business tax returns, he writes In a new letter sent Saturday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. In a two-page letter, Neal writes that he believes his committee is well within its rights to see the President's tax returns and that he expects a decision from the IRS within the next 10 days. "I expect a reply from the IRS by 5:00 p.m. on April 23, 2019. Please know that if you fail to comply, your failure...