DOJ addendum to Trump settlement ends any IRS audits of him and his family
The Justice Department on Tuesday issued an addendum to its sweeping settlement to end President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the IRS that would bar the government from continuing any existing audits of tax returns filed by Trump, his family and their companies.
The filing, signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and posted to the Justice Department's website Tuesday, states that the IRS is "forever barred and precluded" from "prosecuting or pursuing" examinations or reviews of Trump or "related or affiliated individuals" and businesses which arise out of "any matters currently pending or that could be pending" before the IRS or other agencies or departments.
"This is only with respect to existing audits, not future," the DOJ said in a subsequent statement.
The addendum expands the unprecedented settlement agreement announced by the DOJ Monday that establishes a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration, in exchange for Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The arrangement has generated blowback from many Democrats as well as some Republicans, with a group of House Democrats calling it "collusive litigation to force the American people to put ... money into his pockets, and the pockets of his family and friends." They said the settlement would violate the separation of powers, the Domestic Emoluments Clause, and the two-year statute of limitations for the civil claims.
Trump sued the IRS after a government contractor pleaded guilty in 2023 to stealing the tax information of Trump and other wealthy Americans and leaking it to media outlets in 2019 and 2020.
While Trump's settlement with the IRS does not allow him to directly receive money from his "Anti-Weaponization Fund," Tuesday's addendum barring the government from conducting audits of his tax returns, including those filed before the effective date of the settlement, could prove lucrative for the president.
It is unclear if Trump, his family, or any of his businesses are currently under audits. In 2024, the New York Times reported that a long-running audit of the president's taxes could result in a bill more than $100 million.
Trump has long claimed that he faced more than a decade of audits by the IRS, saying that justified him bucking tradition by not releasing his tax returns ahead of the 2016 and 2020 elections.
"As far as my return, I want to file it, except for many years, I've been audited every year. Twelve years, or something like that. Every year they audit me," Trump said during a 2016 presidential debate. " Nobody gets audited -- I have friends that are very wealthy people. They never get audited. I get audited every year."
"They've been under audit for a long time. The IRS does not treat me well," Trump said in September 2020. "They treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS -- they're very -- they treat me very, very badly. But they're under audit. And when they're not, I would be proud to show you."
When the House Ways and Means Committee released six years of his tax returns in 2022, the documents showed that Trump reduced or eliminated his federal tax burden by claiming massive losses. In 2016 and 2017, Trump and his wife Melania only paid $750 in taxes after reporting losing $32.4 million and $12.9 million in adjusted gross income, respectively. In 2018, they reported making $24.3 million and paid $999,456 in taxes, and in 2020, they reported losing $4.8 million and paid no federal taxes.
According to Rep. Richard Neal, then the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the IRS did not begin auditing Trump during his presidency until 2019 when the committee requested it, despite a longstanding requirement that the tax returns filed by the president be audited each year. Neal said in 2022 that those requested audits were never completed.
Federal law prohibits the president from ordering the IRS to stop an audit, though the law allows the attorney general to intervene.
Brandon DeBot, the policy director of the Tax Law Center at NYU School of Law, called the arrangement in Tuesday's addendum a “breathtaking abuse of the tax and legal system."
DeBot said the Department of Justice does not have the authority to offer the broad protections promised in the addendum.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the Justice Department's statement that the addendum refers to existing audits, not future ones.
