President Donald Trump has a beef with the taxman — and he wants taxpayers to foot the bill.

The president, along with two of his sons and the family business, recently filed a lawsuit against the IRS in federal court in the Southern District of Florida. They are seeking damages of at least $10 billion for the leak between 2018-2020 of confidential tax information they claim caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”

It's a head-scratching scenario — not often seen in American politics — where the math doesn’t add up.

To be clear, there is no question that the release of this confidential tax information to news outlets by Charles Edward Littlejohn, who worked for an IRS contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, was reprehensible. He plead guilty and is now in a federal correctional institution.

But this lawsuit, brought by a sitting United States president, is equally shameful — and Trump should drop it.

Some efforts have been made to prevent this unjust enrichment from occurring. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, has authored proposed legislation, "The Prevent Presidential Profiteering Act," which would add a provision to the Internal Revenue Code that imposes "on each covered person for any taxable year a tax equal to 100 percent of the qualified civil action amount received by such person during such taxable year." "Covered person" would include among others "any individual who has served as President of the United States… [and] any member of the family of such individual…"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schume, D-New York, and Sen. Roy Wyden, D-Oregon, have also introduced legislation, titled "Stop Presidential Embezzlement Act," which would impose a 100% tax on any proceeds from a settlement of a civil action against the United States by a President of the United States. It further would extend this tax to also cover vice presidents, cabinet members and members of Congress. Unfortunately, the chance of either of these bills being enacted with the present Congress and Trump in the White House appears highly unlikely.

Separately, a motion was filed in the federal district court in which Trump brought his claim for leave to file a brief as amici curiae, i.e., friend of the court, by four former senior government officials and two public interest organizations. These officials are a former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, a former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division, a former National Taxpayer Advocate at the IRS, and a former Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, Appellate Section. Among the arguments in their brief is that "[t] he President’s control of both sides of this case raises serious concerns about collusive litigation tactics."

Their brief points out that Trump has stated that "[i]n response to press questions about this case ... 'I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself.' In another interview, the President stated: 'Essentially, the lawsuit’s been won. I guess I won a lotta money . . . [T]here’s never been anything like it.'"

Indeed, there’s never been anything like it.

Although Trump has talked about donating the proceeds to charity, the best course of action is to drop the lawsuit — for the good of the country.  Follow President John F Kennedy's plea, from his Inaugural Address, to "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

Philip G. Cohen is a professor emeritus of taxation at Pace University Lubin School of Business and a retired vice president-tax and general tax counsel for Unilever United States, Inc.

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