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Can President Trump Force The IRS To Audit Your Tax Return?

Now that tax season has started, you may feel concerned that you have an additional incentive to prepare and file your tax return carefully. Perhaps you were a vocal supporter of Kamala Harris during the election campaign. Maybe you openly criticize some of President Donald Trump’s policies or actively support causes that he disdains. What prevents President Trump, or his staff and cabinet members, from getting the IRS to audit your tax return because of your dissent or activism?

Randy Joseph (CPA), the founder of the tax advisory firm Joseph & Hetrick in Seattle, has heard worries about this from nonprofits and activists working in areas such as immigrant justice and gender issues. “The concern is that they will be targeted for audit, including board members, and scrutinized and possibly shut down by the IRS, even though they have done nothing wrong,” she told me.

For insights into safeguards that exist to stop this type of harassment, I reached out to top legal experts and the two most recent IRS Commissioners: the IRS chief that President Trump appointed during his first White House term and the President Biden appointee who resigned upon Trump’s inauguration.

The Law That Perhaps Still Protects You

For a start, a federal law exists to keep the IRS independent from political pressure. The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 includes section 26 U.S. Code § 7217, which has somewhat clear language appearing to prevent the President, the Vice President, their staffs, and cabinet members (though not the Attorney General) from asking the IRS to take a close look at your tax return:

(a) Prohibition

It shall be unlawful for any applicable person to request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.

“Applicable person” is defined as:

(1) the President, the Vice President, any employee of the executive office of the President, and any employee of the executive office of the Vice President; and

(2) any individual (other than the Attorney General of the United States) serving in a position specified in section 5312 of title 5, United States Code.

Violators risk fines and imprisonment under this law.

Former IRS Commissioner Provides Some Comfort

Charles Rettig was appointed the IRS Commissioner by Trump during his first presidential term. He then served the remainder of his appointment as IRS chief under President Biden.

“Section 7217 is even more powerful than the words it contains,” Rettig asserted in email exchanges with me. “The entire IRS workforce is aware of and routinely trained on matters involving any potential interference in IRS operations.”

In addition, the law that imposes criminal liability for political pressure on the IRS also created the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to provide independent oversight of IRS activities. Rettig explained to me that TIGTA investigators are quickly notified in various situations that raise concern. As an independent Inspector General, TIGTA conducts investigations of IRS operations.

For example, it did this at Rettig’s request after the IRS randomly and separately selected former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe for an intensive type of tax audit. Sparking controversy, these audits happened after both men were fired by President Trump during his first term. However, the TIGTA report on the matter seems to exonerate the IRS from this coincidence.

Rettig emphasized to me: “It would be naïve and, I believe, disrespectful of the IRS workforce to believe that a President or Vice President could somehow influence the IRS into conducting examinations focused on selected individuals. From a practical perspective (‘subtle’ outreach), there are many internal gates that would have to be cleared by numerous IRS employees before such an examination might be initiated. Based on my direct working relationship with thousands of IRS employees, it would not be possible for an external (or internal) source to impact the selection of a particular taxpayer for examination without it being quickly reported to TIGTA (and Congress).”

Rettig, who served his term as head of the IRS equally under Trump and Biden, further observed: “The White House fully respected the apolitical, impartial nature of the IRS operations. There was never any reach in, subtle or otherwise, nor was the White House ever briefed by us on IRS operations.”

Even if the IRS were to come under political pressure to do an audit, from his time spent with front-line IRS employees Rettig assured me that “their loyalty is to the integrity of the IRS, not whoever is sitting next door to the Treasury.”

Advice To Future IRS Commissioners

Rettig’s advice for future IRS Commissioners is that they “should not interact with the Administration.” Should there be any indication of anything improper, he advises that “the Commissioner must directly notify the Inspector General and should directly notify the Chair/Ranking Members of both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.”

Danny Werfel, the IRS Commissioner appointed by President Biden after Rettig’s term ended, echoes some of the same messages about IRS independence. In an email to me, he stated: “To ensure the IRS relentlessly adheres to its non-partisan mission, the Commissioner should avoid involvement in individual taxpayer matters. Any such involvement creates significant risk—both in appearance and substance—that the IRS is taking actions for partisan purposes.”

Werfel ended his term early by resigning upon Trump’s inauguration, as President Trump had announced plans to replace him with Billy Long, a former Republican Congressman.

Supreme Court Decision Creates Uncertainty And Concern

The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Trump v. United States protects any President from criminal prosecution for “official acts” done while in office. This has raised numerous concerns, including from tax experts, about whether this allows a President to use the IRS against opponents. In addition, the firing by President Trump of Inspectors General has raised questions about their role as independent federal government watchdogs.

Ken Hughes is a research specialist at the Miller Center of the University of Virigina. He studies the uses and abuses of presidential power, including research into White House tape recordings of Presidents Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy. (For example, see his article The Weaponization Of The Federal Government Has A Long History.)

He views the law I cited earlier (26 U.S. Code § 7217) as intended to stop Presidents from “using the IRS against their selected enemies.” The law did that from when it was enacted until recently, he believes.

However, Hughes expressed concerns to me that the Trump v. United States decision “removes a host of safeguards against corruption by declaring that former presidents are broadly immune from criminal prosecution for their official acts.” To him that means “if the president breaks the law by ordering an audit of a political adversary, or anyone he was mad at that day, he might be able to pass it off as an ‘official act’ and avoid criminal prosecution.”

George Yin, a former (now retired) professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and a former chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation in the US Congress, has extensively studied questions about potential government abuse of taxpayer rights. He is even more directly concerned than Hughes about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Under Yin’s analysis, President Trump and perhaps also those staff members determined by the Supreme Court to be his “alter ego” would be immune from prosecution for directing the IRS to favor his friends and disfavor others. Yin told me he fears “the President could announce that ‘These are the people I want the IRS to audit, and these are people the people I want it to refrain from auditing.’”


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