January 6 panel chair says Trump ‘broke the faith’ of US elections in final session
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reportedly failed to audit Donald Trump during his first two years in the White House despite having a program in place that makes the auditing of sitting presidents mandatory.
The former president filed taxes in 2017 for the two previous tax years, but the auditing for the filings began only in 2019, a House committee revealed on Tuesday.
The committee's probe found that only one audit was started while Mr Trump was in office and no audits were completed.
The revelation comes as the House Ways and Means Committee voted to publicly release six years of Mr Trump’s tax returns.
"The Committee expected that these mandatory audits were being conducted promptly and in accordance with IRS policies," committee chair Richard E Neal, said in a statement.
"However, our review found that under the prior administration, the program was dormant. We know now, the first mandatory audit was opened two years into his presidency. On the same day this committee requested his returns."
The former president has long tried to stop the disclosure of the returns, fighting the request for his records all the way to the Supreme Court.
