It sounds nothing like that.
Nope…I think the big news out of this event is the following: We now know in one year just how much Donald Trump would have saved if Trump and the Republicans get rid of the alternative minimum tax, as they apparently want to do. And, it is really, really ugly: He would have paid only something like 2.5% of his income in taxes. The AMT is the only thing preventing rich plutocrats like Trump from paying income tax at a lower rate than someone who earns well below the median income.
I agree, however, that since they do not have anything other than the front page of his return, it does not expose all of his various nefarious dealings that he has been hiding from us by refusing to release his returns. (I think it is fair to assume that Donald Trump is guilty of high crimes and even treasonous actions until he provides us with evidence otherwise…Certainly he seems to be willing to accuse past Presidents of nefarious actions based on no evidence whatsoever. Why should a random citizen like me be held to a much, much higher standard?) The only reason he has gotten this far is that an action that ought to be mandated by law (a Presidential candidate releasing his taxes) has only been mandated by custom, that he flouted and an ignorant segment of the public allowed him to get away with.
That was almost as exciting as the reveal of what was in Al Capone’s vault.
The difference being is that they knew exactly what was on those forms before going on the air. So, it was worse than Al Capone’s vault. But really, it wasn’t Geraldo’s fault…D’oh!
Are you suggesting that my statement that you’d expect to find nothing interesting on a form 1040, and that any odd details would be in the attached schedules, is a conspiracy theory? That’s just a description of how tax forms work! I’m not even suggesting that anything unusual necessarily IS in Trump’s full tax return, I’m just saying where it would be.
Sorry…I was quoting a number that I thought I had heard but other things I am ridding put the number at a whopping near-4% of his income.
Here are some of the stories that are covering this: Trump supports getting rid of the alternative minimum tax. Now we know why.
While I admit it may not be the bombshell that we might expect when we get hold of a full tax return, I think you guys may be underestimating the power of this story, particularly in effecting the upcoming debates over the tax reforms that Republicans in general, and Trump in particular, have been dying to perpetrate on us. It also makes people all the more aware of the need to have Presidents release their tax returns; maybe even some of the borderline Trump voters will start to understand this.
To clarify, that’s 4% (not *negative *4) without the Alternative Minimum, but 25% with it (what he actually paid).
He should release his long form tax return.
Wortherism!
I never understood this obsession with tax returns. I can’t imagine a situational where it would make a difference for whom I voted.
I think the tax return was leaked by John Miller.
Possibly all kinds of things. Not illegal things, but things that he lied about during the campaign, or things that just look bad, e.g.:
- that he gamed the system to pay little or no taxes on large income
- that he gave little or nothing to charity
- that he has a deals with foreign governments, particularly Russia, that could still affect his income today
- or just that he was lying about how rich he is
Your question “So where is all of the illegal stuff?” is about as stupid a question as I’ve ever read. Obviously, the IRS has his returns, so if they were full of blatant fraud, he would be in court, or in prison.
The better question is, if he has nothing to hide, why is he the first candidate, let alone President, who has refused to release his returns in decades? The audit excuse is phony. Even if he is being audited (and he’s given no evidence he is), that’s no reason to refuse, and it would only apply to the last few years at most. But Trump supporters just keep swallowing his shit, no matter what he does. So much for their bedrock principles and absolute morality.
The return released tonight is so innocuous, I suspect it is one he hand-picked to leak, but it is still useless without the schedules that show where the income came from. Hillary has released both hers and Bill’s for the last 40 years, even though they had embarrassing stuff like their huge speaker fees. Trump should do the same.
But Trump admitted openly in the debates that he intentionally strove to pay as little tax as possible. To be honest, it’s always been a fallacy that you’re going to find any evidence of some criminal enterprise from Don’s 1040s, I mean he sends these to the fucking government, if he’s doing corrupt shit that would actually be illegal he’d be pretty stupid to document it in his returns, especially since he is so frequently audited. Not just him, but the high priced tax accountants and attorneys, who unlike Trump are probably competent and intelligent, would also have to be insane.
There was never going to be any proof of illegal activity from any tax documents, and it’s also unlikely you’d have found proof of any questionable overseas entanglements. Tax returns don’t report on assets and debts, which is what we’d really need to find out some potential serious conflicts of interest he might have.
So if he openly admits he tried to pay as little tax as possible, and it’s pure fantasy the returns were going to show criminality or conflicts of interests, why didn’t he release them?
My suspicion has always been that it’s because his income just isn’t that high. We still have no idea how much Trump is really worth. We know from Forbes analysis he has 3-4 billion in provable real estate assets, but without knowing all his liabilities that number is worthless, and Trump claims higher assets with “little debt.” While years of relatively low income wouldn’t prove Trump has a low total net worth, if he was to release say the last 10 years of returns and it was found he barely made any money, that would be questionable. While a billionaire’s income and wealth will fluctuate, the core assets that make them a billionaire should always produce at least some level of income that would be identifiable on a tax return. So if like most of his income the last 10 years has been from producing the Apprentice and appearing on it, that’d be a good sign the Donald isn’t nearly as wealthy as he says he is and that while we know the Trump Organization is a going concern, it probably isn’t very profitable since he had realized few profits from it.
While I’m loathe to get into conspiracy theories, all that being said, Trump being behind the leak actually makes a lot of sense:
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2005 was the last year Trump did the sort of “big time” real estate deals that initially made him famous and allegedly wealthy. He sold over $100m in real estate assets, in fact the lion’s share of his income on this leaked 1040 are from those deals. So if Trump selectively leaked this return, we know he wasn’t doing similar deals afterward, 2005 could be both the last year he saw significant income and probably also the last year he paid significant taxes (it’s dang hard to not pay taxes on real estate capital gains, even with good accountants.)
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By releasing selectively this return, he “suggests” he’s a very high earner, and also gets to tout paying $40m in tax. Even though for all we know he barely paid any tax at all in the years prior and after.
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Since there was nothing really explosive in this return, it can be used to tamp down on future calls for more returns.
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More important still, it’s a distraction from something else, probably something more substantive that Trump wants to not be focused on at the moment. Like for example his collapsing health care reform bill.
I’m not saying Trump leaked it, but there’s at least a plausible story that he would have, and reason to believe this return was unique in that he sold a bunch of real estate in 2005 and thus could show the sort of return you’d expect from an uber wealthy property magnate. But we know from following Trump since 2005 that he hasn’t really been a property guy since then, he’s mostly been a reality TV host who may or may not run a profit from his hotel management and golf courses. But Trump, despite having done it for many years, would prefer to be thought of as a real estate tycoon and not just a reality star, despite the fact it’s now been a long time since Trump was a big player as a real estate tycoon.
As for the alternative minimum tax stuff, the Republicans have been wanting to get rid of the AMT for years, and everyone knows (who follows this stuff) it immensely benefits the wealthy. Just like most “in depth” policy issues, I very seriously doubt a significant amount of the public is going to pay attention to that part of it.
Because he didn’t need to. All he needed to do is give this information to the IRS - which he did - and convince enough people that he should be President to be elected - which he also did. He was under no obligation to share confidential information about a private citizen with the media.
Another thing worth noting, is unlike most Presidential candidates we’ve had, or really anyone who has been President, most of Trump’s income is through a very large and complex “business” that is made up of over 500 different legal entities. It’s highly likely if Trump is doing business, receiving income or etc from really shady or questionable people, countries or entities, that it was done through his businesses, which he would’ve eventually possibly seen as profit-sharing he’d receive as principal owner.
So it’s never been terribly likely that Trump’s personal 1040s are what’s really important in terms of sussing out the President’s ethical situation; instead we’d need basically full open public access to all of the finances of the Trump umbrella organization. We’re unlikely to ever get them–but without that we really can’t hope to find corruption. That’s also why Trump not divesting himself is troublesome. Just like we can’t find stuff in the past going on that might not be above board, we also don’t know of ongoing stuff, because the Trump Organization is a private company with very limited legal disclosure requirements.
That’s why I go back to suspecting the worst thing Trump’s tax returns would show is just all around low income that tarnishes his brand, and if you read about Trump’s “triggers”, calling into question his wealth is one of the things that really, really makes him mad. It’s also possible he’d want to hide the fact he’s likely donated little to charity, but he could potentially explain that away by saying he pays charities through his business entities, then refuse to give proof (i.e. lie and then counter with an unverifiable claim, something he did repeatedly throughout the campaign and continues to do now as President.)
If Fox News did what Maddow did, there would be Liberals squealing like stuck pigs.
On the contrary. I encourage Fox news to find and publish more of Trump’s tax returns.
Of course, it would be pointless for them to publish Clinton’s tax returns, or for that matter any other presidential candidate’s returns; They’ve all voluntarily disclosed them.
This was exactly what I was thinking. As April gets nearer, so do the calls to release his 2016 tax returns. So he goes through his prior returns, and anonymously releases the most favorable one, taking care to not release the schedules so we have no idea of his charitable deductions or foreign income. He now can claim that there is proof that he pays a large amount of taxes and that therefore there is no need to release anything else.
Isn’t that just like those sneaky Clintons!
The reporter for this story made that same point, since he has no clear idea where it came from. Could be, I suppose, release something innocuous and make a big deal about how innocuous it was, like that would prove something. Risk would be that it might whet our appetite rather than squelch investigation.
But what makes sense, when you are dealing with people who don’t make sense to begin with?