Saturday, October 13, 2018

Elect Democratic House … and See Kushner Tax Returns


Everyone reading this blog paid federal taxes this past year. In tonight’s NYT, new reporting suggests that Jared Kushner avoided paying federal taxes entirely from 2009-2016.
With that in mind, you might want to read Andy Grewal, “Can Congress Get President Trump’s Tax Returns?,” published in Yale Journal on Regulation on February 13, 2017.
Here is a quote to give you a gist of the matter:
In a recent Washington Post article, Professor George Yin argues that Congress can force Trump to make his returns available for legislative review. Legislators have embraced similar arguments.... 
The statutory authority for any congressional requests would probably come from Sections 6103(f)(1) & (2) of the tax code. 
Under (f)(1), some committees of Congress can request disclosure of Trump’s returns and can examine those returns privately
Under (f)(2), a non-partisan career official, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), may also request and privately examine those returns. 
Professor Yin argues that information obtained through Section 6103(f) can be subsequently disclosed to the public, when public disclosure serves a legitimate legislative purpose.
….

That law review article was written before Saudi Arabia-- where Jared Kushner has invested personal funds-- emerged as a suspect in a chilling murder of a journalist.
Thus, a Section 6103 audit would not be a fishing expedition or a personal vendetta but would serve a legitimate public policy interest to see whether the Trump administration's handling of this human rights case is influenced by income that was not reported as taxable nor paid on as taxes (as the rest of us do), but rather, invested jointly with the royal Saudi family.  

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