THE SQUIZ 
The US Supreme Court has approved the release of 6 years of former president Donald Trump’s tax returns. That means the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – aka America’s tax office – is set to hand over the documents outlining Trump’s personal finances to a Democratic-controlled congressional committee. Trump was/is a billionaire businessman – or so he said. And he was the first president in 4 decades to refuse to release his returns on taking high office. Democrats say the House Ways and Means Committee needs to assess whether the IRS is auditing presidential returns correctly. But Trump’s lawyers take a different view… They say the committee is politically-motivated and will weaponise the information to use against him – right as he joins the 2024 presidential race…

HOLD UP, HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT?
Good question. Usually, a candidate releases their tax returns during their campaign for the White House. It’s all to do with integrity and transparency – opening the books on their personal financial matters is a way to show they’re on the straight and narrow. There’s been pressure on Trump – mostly from Democrats – to release his tax returns since way back in 2016 during the Republican campaign to pick their presidential candidate. More recently, he’s been in a 3-year legal fight to keep the returns private. Under Trump’s administration during his time in office, the Treasury Department refused to release the documents. But that all changed under President Joe Biden’s administration, which says the law is clear in allowing the committee to review any taxpayer’s returns, including a president’s… And yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Although this counts as a big loss for Trump, the drawn-out legal fight over releasing the returns could ultimately work in his favour… The House of Representatives, currently controlled by the Democrats, will be taken over by Republicans on 3 January following this month’s midterm election result. And that means the Democratic-controlled committee will only have about a month to examine Trump’s tax documents… But it could be enough time for them to complete the review. Ways and Means Committee chair, Congressman Richard Neal, says lawmakers will “conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last 3 and a half years” but didn’t say whether they plan to release the tax returns publicly. We’ll have to wait and see…