United States HR 273: Presidential Tax Transparency Act of 2019

Bill Text

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116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 273
To improve Presidential and Vice Presidential tax transparency, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 8, 2019
Ms. ESHOO (for herself and Mr. PASCRELL) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addi-
tion to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To improve Presidential and Vice Presidential tax
transparency, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Presidential Tax 4
Transparency Act of 2019’’. 5
SEC. 2. PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL TAX 6
TRANSPARENCY. 7
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
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(1) The term ‘‘covered candidate’’ means a can-1
didate of a major party in a general election for the 2
office of President or Vice President. 3
(2) The term ‘‘major party’’ has the meaning 4
given the term in section 9002 of the Internal Rev-5
enue Code of 1986. 6
(3) The term ‘‘income tax return’’ means, with 7
respect to an individual, any return (as such term is 8
defined in section 6103(b)(1) of the Internal Rev-9
enue Code of 1986) of such individual other than— 10
(A) information returns issued to persons 11
other than such individual, and 12
(B) declarations of estimated tax. 13
(4) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 14
of the Treasury or the delegate of the Secretary. 15
(b) DISCLOSURE.— 16
(1) IN GENERAL.— 17
(A) CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND 18
VICE PRESIDENT.—Not later than the date that 19
is 15 days after the date on which an individual 20
becomes a covered candidate, the individual 21
shall submit to the Federal Election Commis-22
sion a copy of the individual’s income tax re-23
turns for the 10 most recent taxable years for 24
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which a return has been filed with the Internal 1
Revenue Service. 2
(B) PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT.— 3
With respect to each taxable year for an indi-4
vidual who is the President or Vice President, 5
not later than the due date for the return of tax 6
for the taxable year, such individual shall sub-7
mit to the Federal Election Commission a copy 8
of the individual’s income tax returns for the 9
taxable year and for the 9 preceding taxable 10
years. 11
(C) TRANSITION RULE FOR SITTING PRESI-12
DENTS AND VICE PRESIDENTS.—Not later than 13
the date that is 30 days after the date of enact-14
ment of this section, an individual who is the 15
President or Vice President on such date of en-16
actment shall submit to the Federal Election 17
Commission a copy of the income tax returns 18
for the 10 most recent taxable years for which 19
a return has been filed with the Internal Rev-20
enue Service. 21
(2) FAILURE TO DISCLOSE.—If any require-22
ment under paragraph (1) to submit an income tax 23
return is not met, the chairman of the Federal Elec-24
tion Commission shall submit to the Secretary a 25
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written request that the Secretary provide the Fed-1
eral Election Commission with the income tax re-2
turn. 3
(3) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.—The chairman of 4
the Federal Election Commission shall make publicly 5
available each income tax return submitted under 6
paragraph (1) in the same manner as a return pro-7
vided under section 6103(l)(23) of the Internal Rev-8
enue Code of 1986 (as added by this section). 9
(4) TREATMENT AS A REPORT UNDER THE 10
FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT OF 1971.—For 11
purposes of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 12
1971, any income tax return submitted under para-13
graph (1) or provided under section 6103(l)(23) of 14
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as added by 15
this section) shall, after redaction under paragraph 16
(3) or subparagraph (B)(ii) of such section, be treat-17
ed as a report filed under the Federal Election Cam-18
paign Act of 1971. 19
(c) DISCLOSURE OF RETURNS OF PRESIDENTS AND 20
VICE PRESIDENTS AND CERTAIN CANDIDATES FOR 21
PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT.— 22
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 6103(l) of the Inter-23
nal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at 24
the end the following new paragraph: 25
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‘‘(23) DISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION 1
OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE PRESIDENTS