This is a really awesome read, it has a lot of great info if you have a few minutes! There's a lot of information to summarize, but the author does a great job of editing the 11 legal experts thoughts into manageable, understandable bites! Here's just one excerpt of one opinion:
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Neal absolutely has the power to request the president’s tax returns and returns of his businesses.
The Internal Revenue Code contains a lengthy section that generally protects the confidentiality of tax returns/return information and prohibits their disclosure by government employees. The provision Rep. Neal is using is a specific statutory exception from that disclosure prohibition. That exception says that the secretary of the Treasury (or his delegate) “shall furnish” the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee with any tax return or return information requested in writing.
Note that this does not entail public disclosure of the returns — under this exception, any return or return information that identifies a particular taxpayer must be provided to the “committee only when sitting in closed executive session” unless the taxpayer in question consents in writing. -Leandra Lederman, law professor, Indiana University
(Cover Photo Cred: Win McNamee)