TAXMAN DIDN’T COMETH

Trump Put on Blast After IRS’ Audit Gap Revealed

The agency failed to audit Trump for the first two years of his presidency.

Critics, congressmen, and members of the House Ways and Means Committee that on Tuesday released a six-year snapshot of Trump’s taxes slammed the former president for saying he was audited throughout his presidency, Newsweek reports. Trump claimed he could not release his tax returns because of the auditing. But Tuesday’s Ways and Means report revealed that the IRS failed to audit returns Trump filed during two years of his presidency—despite the fact that they were required by law. In 2011, the IRS began to probe a rolling $72.9 million tax refund Trump had received for claiming massive business losses in 2009, but the audit stalled out in 2016 for unknown reasons while apparently remaining open, according to The New York Times. Still, experts told Newsweek there is no law on the books that would have precluded Trump from releasing his returns publicly, even if he were under audit.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify that Trump was accused of lying about being barred from releasing his tax returns because he was under audit.