Trump immunity from IRS audit shocks experts, who warn it could undermine trust in tax system

The IRS agreed to drop pending probes into whether Donald Trump paid his fair share of taxes after settling a lawsuit tied to a leak of his tax returns. The settlement could end an ongoing audit involving a reported tax-avoidance technique that might have led to an estimated $100 million bill. Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the IRS investigation politically motivated without providing proof. Details of audits are not public, making the merits difficult to assess. The resolution was unusual because Trump sued an agency within the executive branch he leads, and the agency then granted him immunity. The settlement bars the U.S. from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons, and current tax filings, and it was added to an earlier agreement creating a compensation fund for people Trump believed were improperly investigated.

"On Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service agreed to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he's paid his fair share of taxes, to settle a lawsuit brought by the president over a leak of his tax returns. That could include, assuming it was ongoing, a long-standing audit into a technique Trump reportedly used to avoid paying taxes years ago that could have hit him with an estimated $100 million bill if the IRS found wrongdoing."

"Trump sued the IRS, a federal agency within his administration, putting him in the unusual position of challenging an agency overseen by the executive branch he leads - a rare move, experts say, and possibly unprecedented. Then that agency decided, in another unusual move, to grant him immunity."

"Under the settlement to resolve Trump's $10 billion lawsuit over the 2018 leak of his tax returns to The New York Times, the U.S. is "forever barred and precluded" from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization's current tax filings, according to a one-page document released Tuesday. That was quietly added to an original settlement establishing a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people whom Trump thinks were improperly investigated by the government."

"Details of IRS audits are not public and the merits of each side's arguments are impossible to tell. But the way the president's case against his own government's IRS was resolved is highly unusual, experts say. Trump has repeatedly denied he did anything wrong and has blasted the IRS investigation as politically motivated, without providing proof."

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