Donald Trump has given lots of excuses—um, reasons— why he won’t release his tax returns. The usual reason is that he is under audit. He’ll release them when the audit is over. Of course, he says that he is audited every year.
“It’s None of Your Business”
Back in May, George Stephanopoulos pushed Trump hard during an interview on This Week. Stephanopoulos reminded Trump that there is no rule against releasing your returns during an audit. For the last 40 years, every presidential candidate has done it, even Richard Nixon (who wasn’t exactly Mr. Transparency, after all). And the IRS has been very clear that a pending audit is no bar to public disclosure. “Doesn’t the public have a right to see the returns before they make their decision?” he asked.”No,” Trump answered.
Trump went on to say that the public wouldn’t learn much from the returns anyway. Stephanopoulos disagreed. The returns would reveal what Trump’s sources of income are, whether he has any foreign sources of income, and his tax rate. Trump said he had no foreign income and no off-shore accounts.When asked about his tax rate, Trump said, “It’s none of your business.”
Stephanopoulos tried another angle.Trump had released his tax returns when he applied for casino licenses. Why shouldn’t he release them when he seeks the Presidency?
“It wasn’t important to me then. but it is now.”
Stephanopoulos then reminded Trump that he promised to release his tax returns when President Obama released is birth certificate. But when Obama released the certificate, Trump didn’t keep his promise. And Trump promised to release his returns when Hillary Clinton released her emails. Hadn’t she just released her emails? No. Trump contended there were still many emails missing. And again, he said he would release the returns when his audit was complete.
https://youtu.be/jDKq2RnLGqY?t=88
Lessons from Mitt Romney
On Sunday, July 31, 2016, Trump appeared again on Stephanopoulos’s program. Trump maintained his position that he would release his returns when the audit was completed. But then, he said:
“You know, I watched Mitt Romney four years ago. He released them in September, right before the election. And they made him look so bad, it was so unfair. I actually believe…that Romney lost the election because of a couple of minor items on his tax returns…not the ’47 percent.'”
So, now we know. Trump is afraid that he will lose the election if we see his tax returns. And in case you were wondering why he won’t release the returns from years for which the audits are complete, “They’re all linked.” In other words, we’ll never see them.
Featured image via Michael Vadon under a Creative Commons 2.0.
