Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee is due to decide whether to make public the details of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns. 

The House Ways and Means Committee will take the decision behind closed doors at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Trump, unlike previous presidential candidates, refused to make his tax returns public. He has fought Democrats’ efforts to get access to details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.

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For several decades, presidential hopefuls of both parties have voluntarily released their tax returns. However, there is no required law to make the details public.

According to democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, the records will help assess whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly auditing presidential tax returns. The committee also said that it would help decide whether new legislation is needed.

The committee’s chairman, Representative Richard Neal, has not said whether he supports making the details public. Neal had requested the first six years of Trump’s taxes as well as tax returns for eight of his businesses back in April of 2019.

According to CNN sources, Republicans on the committee are preparing to fight hard if Democrats vote to release any of Trump’s tax information. It’s just two weeks until Republicans formally take control of the House.

The New York Times’ 2020 articles said that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018. The articles exposed deep inequities in the US tax code.

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At the time of the 2020 articles, Neal said he saw an ethical problem in Trump overseeing a federal agency.

“Now, Donald Trump is the boss of the agency he considers an adversary,” Neal said in 2020. “It is essential that the IRS’s presidential audit program remain free of interference.”

Trump’s longtime accountant, Donald Bender, said the former president reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organization.