Thread by @stevenportnoy

Interestingly enough, the same statute that requires the IRS to turn over an individual's tax return to key committees gives the same right of review to the president.

But he must give a specific reason for requesting a tax return, and report the request to Congress.

Congressional taxwriting panels have had the power to review any individual's taxes in executive session since *at least* 1954.

The Internal Revenue Code of 1954 said the Treasury "shall furnish" a committee with "any data of any character contained in or shown by any return."

A tax reform bill signed by Gerald Ford in 1976 tweaked the language to say that the Treasury "shall furnish such committee with any return or return information" when a committee is sitting in executive session.

That bill, passed in the aftermath of the Nixon era, aimed to restrict the president's ability (previously unfettered under executive order) to obtain an individual's tax returns by requiring him to notify Congress quarterly of such requests.

UPDATE! I just found an *even earlier* grant of Congress's ability to "inspect" an individual's tax return.

The Revenue Act of 1926 said Treasury "shall furnish such committee sitting in executive session with any data of any character contained" in any individual's return.

I'm tweeting my dig into Statutes at Large in real time here, so apologies.

In *1924*, Congress said it "shall have the right to call on the Secretary of the Treasury for, and it shall be his duty to furnish, any data of any character contained in or shown by" any return.

Bottom line -- Congress has had the power to request and review any individual's tax return for at least a hundred years now, and it's a power that Congress has repeatedly enacted into law over the decades.