COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against CHARLES P. RETTIG, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, STEVEN T. MNUCHIN, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (Fee Status:Filing Fee Waived) filed by COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit A, #2 Exhibit B, #3 Exhibit C, #4 Exhibit D, #5 Exhibit E, #6 Exhibit F, #7 Exhibit G, #8 Exhibit H, #9 Exhibit I, #10 Exhibit J, #11 Exhibit K, #12 Exhibit L, #13 Exhibit M, #14 Exhibit N, #15 Exhibit O, #16 Exhibit P, #17 Civil Cover Sheet, #18 Summons, #19 Summons, #20 Summons, #21 Summons, #22 Summons, #23 Summons)(Letter, Douglas)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS,
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515,
Plaintiff,
Case No. 1:19-cv-1974

v.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
THE TREASURY,
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220, et al.,
Defendants.

Exhibit P

RICHARD E. NEAL,
MASSACHUSETIS,
CHAIRMAN
JOHN LEWIS, GEORGIA
LLOYD DOGGETT, TEXAS
MIKE THOMPSON, CALIFORNIA
JOHN B. LARSON, CONNECTICUT
EAR L BLUMENAUER, OREGON
AON KIN D. WISCO NSIN
BILL PASCAELL JR., NEW JERSEY
DANNY K. DAVIS, ILLINOIS
LINDA T. SANCHEZ, CALIFORNIA
BRIAN HIGGINS, N EW YORK
TERRI A. SEWE LL, ALABAM A
SUZAN DELBENE, WASHINGTON
JUDY CHU, CALIFORNIA
GWEN MOORE, WISCON SIN
DA N KILDEE, M ICHIGAN
BRENDAN BOYLE. PENN SYLVAN IA
DON BEYER, VIRGINIA
DW IGHT EVANS, PEN NSYLVANIA
BRAD SCHNEIDER, ILLINOIS
TOM SUOZZI, NEW YORK
JIMMY PAN ETTA, CALIFORNIA
STEPHANIE MURPHY, FLORIDA
JI MMY GOMEZ, CALIFORNIA
STEVEN HORSFORD. NEVADA

((ongress of tbe llntteb ~tates
'ml.~. j!}ouse of l\epresentatibes
COMM ITIEE ON WAYS AN D MEANS
1102

LON GWO RT H H OUSE O FFICE BU ILDING

[phone]

[lfflm)bington, ll<lt 20515-0348
http://waysandmeans.house.gov

KEVIN BRADY,
TEXAS,
RANKING MEMBER
DEVIN NUNES, CALIFORNIA
VERN BUCHANAN, FLORIDA
ADRIAN SMITH , NEBRASKA
KENNY MARCHANT, TEXAS
TOM REED, NEW YORK
MIKE KELLY, PE NNSYLVANIA
GEORGE HOLDING, NORTH CAROLINA
J ASON SM ITH, MISSOURI
TOM RICE, SOUTH CAROLINA
DAVID SCHWEIKERT, ARIZONA
J ACKIE WALORSKI. IN DIANA
DARIN LAHOOD, ILLINOIS
BRAD A. WEN STAUP, OHIO
JOOEY A RRINGTON. TEXAS
DREW FERGU SON, GEORGIA
AON ESTES, KANSAS
GARY ANDRES,
MINORITY STAFF DIRECTOR

June 28, 2019

BRANDON CASEY,
MAJORITY STAFF DIRECTOR

The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin
Secretary
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

The Honorable Charles P. Rettig
Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution A venue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20224

Dear Secretary Mnuchin and Commissioner Rettig,
The Committee on Ways and Means ("Committee") has oversight and legislative
authority over the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and the Federal tax laws. Consistent
with this authority and the Committee' s longstanding practice under section 6103(-f) of the
Internal Revenue Code ("Code"), I requested six years of President Trump' s individual tax
returns and certain related returns and return infonnation. Upon the denial of that section
6103(f) request, I issued subpoenas for the information. To date, you have not complied
with those subpoenas.
As you are aware, on June 10, 2019- in response to your offers to provide the
Committee with additional information on the mandatory Presidential audit
process outlined in the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM)-a briefing was provided by
officials from the IRS and the Department of the Treasury ("Treasury"). It included a
walk-through of the applicable IRM provisions and a high-level description of some ways
in which current audit practices diverge from the IRM because, as Treasury and IRS
officials noted, the provisions are four decades old and are now "outdated" in numerous
respects.
Regrettably, of the eight Treasury and IRS officials sent to the briefing, none had
ever been involved in a mandatory Presidential audit. Further, despite letters I sent
specifically authorizing Majority and Minority Committee staff to receive return and return
information in connection with the briefing, the IRS and Treasury declined to answer any
questions asked by Committee staff related to the actual audits of multiple prior Presidents

Secretary Mnuchin
Commissioner Rettig
Page 2

across both political parties, including basic questions about whether Presidential returns
have ever been filed electronically, how long Presidential audits generally take, whether
there ever have been any assessments made to Presidential returns, or whether any
President-taxpayers have ever gone to IRS Appeals from a mandatory audit. In total,
Majority and Minority Committee staff raised a few hundred questions, most of which
Treasury and IRS declined to answer.
The June 10 briefing only reinforced the Committee's need to review the actual
return information as part of our oversight duties. For example, the briefing highlighted
the substantial discretion a single IRS revenue agent possesses in conducting an audit of a
President's tax returns, raising serious concerns about the absence of safeguards protecting
both the individual auditor as well as the entire audit process from improper influence. The
briefing also raised concerns uniquely and directly relevant to the thoroughness of the
Presidential audit process as applied to this President, including how related-entity returns
and returns previously under audit have been considered and how highly complex returns
are examined. The officials at the briefing reported that there are no specific mandatory
audit procedures for a President's grantor trusts. This Committee is charged with
conducting oversight of precisely these types of questions, and the answers can only be
determined by reviewing the returns and audit file information that the IRS and Treasury
have thus far refused to provide.
The limited information conveyed at the briefing is not a replacement for the actual
return and return information that the Committee requested under section 6103(f) and now
has subpoenaed. As I have explained in our prior correspondence, the Committee is
conducting oversight of the IRS' s handling of Presidential tax returns and enforcement of
tax laws involving the President. As part of that investigation, the Committee is examining
the IRS's administration of the mandatory Presidential audit process and the application of
that audit process to the tax returns of President Trump and certain related entities. Indeed,
the President himself repeatedly has called into question the integrity of the IRS's audit
system, including by criticizing the mandatory audit process as "extremely unfair." The
Committee is also considering the adequacy of the IRS' s review of particular provisions of
the Code that testimony before the Oversight Subcommittee has indicated may be relevant
to President Trump's returns.
Without studying the returns and the documentation of the agent's decisions that
were requested, the Committee cannot evaluate the accuracy of the President's claims
about the audit system, assess the fairness and effectiveness of the audit program and the
scope of the audits being performed on the President's returns, or understand how
particular provisions of the Code are being enforced as part of the IRS' s review. Each of
these will inform the Committee's legislative judgment of whether and how to amend the
Code to respond to issues concerning the audit process or that are otherwise implicated by
the President's returns.

Secretary Mnuchin
Commissioner Rettig
Page 3

The subpoenas issued to the IRS and Treasury on May 10 remain pending, and you
remain under a legal obligation to provide this information to the Committee. Thank you
for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,

onorable Richard E. Neal, Chairman