There are two laws that are very clear.
And they apply to Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.
One says the IRS “shall” – not “can,” not “may” – hand over the tax returns of any person if requested by the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The second says any federal official who has anything to do with the tax laws must follow them or be removed from office snd face fines or jail – or both.
Tax law and economics expert, David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winner, explains at The Daily Beast:
“Under Section 6103 of our tax code, Treasury officials ‘shall’ turn over the tax returns ‘upon written request’ of the chair of either congressional tax committee or the federal employee who runs Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. No request has ever been refused, a host of former congressional tax aides tell me.”
“There are no qualifiers in Section 6103 that shield Trump from delivering, in confidence, his tax returns to Congress. No wiggle room at all.”
But the buck, so to speak, does not stop there.
“There is, however, a law requiring every federal ’employee’ who touches the tax system to do their duty or be removed from office,” Johnston writes.
“The crystal-clear language of this law applies to Trump, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Mnuchin and [IRS chief] Rettig, federal employees all.”
“Another provision in our tax code, Section 7214(a), provides that ‘Any officer or employee of the United States acting in connection with any revenue law of the United States… who with intent to defeat the application of any provision of this title fails to perform any of the duties of his office or employment… shall be dismissed from office or discharged from employment and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years or both.'”
Read the entire article at The Daily Beast.