Will we see those tax returns?

Late Thursday afternoon, [Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey] was sitting on the majority side of a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee examining the question of whether it would be proper to invoke an obscure law, much of which dates back to 1924 and the Teapot Dome scandal, that gives the Ways and Means Committee the right to demand the tax returns of every American. The law—26 U.S. 6103—says that the W&M chairman, who now is Richard Neal, a Democrat from the Commonwealth (God save it!), must be provided on demand with any tax returns that he requests. He can then decide whether or not to share the information with the entire committee in executive session.

The law also allows the committee to share the information with both the full House and the Senate. Neal already has said that he would prefer that the president* share the information with the committee voluntarily—fat chance—but that he would invoke 6103 if necessary. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin could refuse Neal's request, which would send us all into Depositionland for a couple of months, but the law is on Congress's side here.

On Thursday, subcommittee chairman John Lewis presided over a hearing at which several experts in this admittedly narrow legal speciality testified before the oversight subcommittee. The hearing was notable mainly for the fact that the Republicans in attendance were in a manic state of near panic. One of them, Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, compared Trump's refusal to turn over his tax returns to Franklin Roosevelt's having concealed the fact that he was in a wheelchair, which struck many observers as something of a stretch.

All of them asked the witnesses if there was a law that made the president* or the vice-president release their tax information, which everybody in the hall knew there wasn't. (Although that requirement is part of House Resolution 1, the massive good-government initiative currently pending in the Congress.) The difference, of course, is the fact that there is a law that says the W&M chairman can demand that information.

[...]

Back in 2014, as part of their performance piece about how the IRS was "targeting" conservative groups, the Republican majority on Ways and Means released the tax information of 51 individuals.

  Charles P Pierce

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.