The House Ways and Means Committee voted to release a summary of Trump's tax returns between 2015 and 2021, the years when he was running for president and serving in the White House, panel members said.
Committee chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat, said a redacted summary of Trump's tax returns would be released within days. Democrats have little time to act, as Republicans are due to take control of the House in January.
It was not clear whether the material would shed light on potential conflicts between Trump's real-estate holdings and his actions as president, or how much tax he paid on the hundreds of millions of dollars his businesses earned while he was president. Lawmakers said the returns were scant on details.
Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the committee, told reporters that some of those returns were still being audited, so it was not clear how much tax Trump owed. Like other committee Republicans, he voted against their release on the grounds that it could set a bad precedent.
The release of the returns could lead to more scrutiny for the former president as he mounts another White House bid.
But the committee also said the U.S. Internal Revenue Service did not follow its own rules when it failed to audit Trump's tax returns during three of his four years in office. Members said Congress should pass a law to strengthen the presidential audit program.
"What people will likely be surprised about is the extent to which the IRS was not conforming to their own rules," Democratic Representative Dan Kildee told reporters.
Trump, unlike previous presidential candidates, refused to make his tax returns public as he sought to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization, and he fought Democrats' efforts to get access to them.
Trump claimed that he could not release his tax returns because they were being examined by the IRS. Tax experts have said that is not a valid excuse.
Committee Chairman Neal declined to comment on whether Trump was being truthful or not.