Former US president Donald Trump’s tax returns are due to be released on Friday by The House Ways and Means Committee, according to its spokesperson on Tuesday.

The committee, which serves as the chief tax-writing body of the United States House of Representatives, voted to make Trump's tax documents public. They were supposed to be released last Wednesday, but with staffers still redacting and concealing sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers from the documents, time consumption played a role that led to the delay. 

This comes as one of the committee's final tasks since it would have to turn over control to Republicans when the new Congress rolls in next week.

A Tug-of-war 

The returns were initially acquired in November by the committee after Trump unusually kept them hidden when other presidents before him have kept them public over their whole presidential term. Not only did he conceal them, but he refused to release them when asked to, which exacerbated suspicions regarding foreign business transactions or that he was paying fewer taxes than the average American.

After a lengthy game of tug-of-war, the Supreme Court took over to resolve the matter, and then it all started falling down. After a three-year legal battle, the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead last month for the impending delivery of Trump's tax returns to a congressional committee.

The court denied Trump's request for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from providing the Ways and Means Committee with six years' worth of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses. 

Read more: NY sues Trump, company, and children over fraud claims

The Joint Committee on Taxation published a 39-page report last week exposing Trump for paying little in taxes, including only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none in 2020.

The report stated that the IRS was required to review his taxes for mandatory auditing, which no president is exempt from, but they didn't begin doing so until after the Ways and Means Committee requested information on the mandatory audits in 2019.

Back in July 2021, the Trump Organization, the family real-estate company that led former President Trump down the road to fame, was accused of running a 15-year tax evasion scheme. Allen Weisselberg, a senior Trump Organization advisor and former company CFO, pleaded guilty to all 15 charges brought against him in the case.