Cuomo signs bill allowing state to release Trump's tax returns

Cuomo signs bill allowing state to release Trump's tax returns

Cuomo signs bill allowing state to release Trump's tax returns

NY governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed into law a measure allowing Congress to obtain President Trump's NY state tax returns.

The "Trust Act" allows the commissioner of New York's Department of Taxation and Finance to turn over state income tax returns when requested by a chairman of the three congressional tax committees: House Ways and Means, Senate Finance and the Joint Committee on Taxation. But there is no law requiring presidents or presidential contenders to release their tax returns. That includes anything that might violate state or federal law, and private information like Social Security numbers, residential addresses and account numbers.

US congressional Democrats have pushed for the release of Trump's tax returns since he took office.

Administration officials say Mr. Neal doesn't have a legitimate objective for requesting the documents.

He also said that lawmakers don't have jurisdiction over NY.

Other lawmakers were eager to use the new law to get any tax information on Trump they could, with some saying Neal might be persuaded to change his mind. "Now, his administration is precipitating a constitutional showdown by shielding the President from Congressional oversight over those returns", Hoylman said in a statement in May.

But although the law takes effect Monday, it remains unlikely the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee, which is already waging its own battle in court to obtain six years of the President's personal and business federal tax returns, will request the state returns.

Democrats have said they have the authority to seek Trump's tax returns, citing the century-old IRS code 6103 that stipulates when the Ways and Means Committee requests an individual's tax returns, the agency "shall furnish" them. The committee then explained that members could disclose why it wants the information in this case, arguing that it needed to see if Trump was complying with tax law.

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