NY Could Release Trump's Tax Returns Under New Bill

NEW YORK — A bill introduced Monday could give lawmakers in Congress a little help from New York State in their effort to obtain President Donald Trump's tax returns.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance could share state tax returns — including Trump's — with a select few congressional committees under the legislation backed by state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat.

The proposal comes as Democrats in Congress seek the Republican president's tax returns despite his refusal to release them while also pursuing a sweeping probe into him and his associates.

"This new bill will permit New York State to comply with requests from congressional investigative committees and help ensure Congress can’t be blocked in their attempts to hold even the highest elected officials in the land accountable to the American people," Hoylman said in a statement.

State tax law currently bars the Department of Taxation and Finance from disclosing state tax returns except under certain circumstances, Hoylman's office says. Hoylman's bill would create another exception to that rule by allowing the agency to share returns with the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation.

To get ahold of any returns, the committee chairperson would have to submit a written request to the state that indicates lawmakers need the information for a "specified and legitimate legislative purpose," and that they have also requested related federal returns or return information from the U.S. Treasury secretary, according to the bill.

The Taxation and Finance commissioner would also have discretion over whether to release the requested information, Hoylman's office says.

Hoylman introduced the legislation less than a week after the House Ways and Means Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for Trump's tax returns from the last six years. The president has resisted calls to release the documents himself since his first campaign, saying he cannot do so because he is being audited.

"I guess when you have a name, you are audited, but until such time as I’m not under audit I would not be inclined to do that," Trump told reporters last week, according to The New York Times. (The IRS has reportedly indicated that an audit would not prevent someone from making tax returns public.)

Trump has already faced scrutiny from the Department of Taxation and Finance. The agency said it was looking into allegations of financial fraud by Trump and his family that the Times reported in October. It also reportedly started an investigation into the president's charity, the Trump Foundation, which agreed to shut down last year as it faced a lawsuit from the state attorney general's office.

A senior adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo — a vocal Trump critic — suggested the governor would favor expanding the bill's apparent scope beyond federal officials.

"Transparency and disclosure is vital, but tax return privacy is also important and we should not politicize the process — however Governor Cuomo believes elected officials on all levels should be prepared to release their taxes if they enter public service and he would include state and local, as well as federal officials, in any legal revision," the adviser, Rich Azzopardi, said in a statement.

The bill won praise from Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which sought documents from dozens of people, agencies and organizations last month as part of a Trump-related investigation.

"It is critical that to maintain trust in our government and uphold the rule of law, that we in Congress must be able to perform oversight over the executive branch," Nadler said in a statement. "This legislation would make the work of a federal committee a little easier, if confronted with inability to receive the federal tax return, we can turn to New York State."