imagine his income is just as high as he intimates; maybe even higher. And imagine he donates plenty to charity, and does what a decent American should with regard to assets and taxes. And imagine he revealed all of this during the primaries.
What does Hillary go after him with in the general? Well, other stuff, I guess.
So imagine instead that he unconvincingly makes a big deal about not releasing 'em, and she keeps gunning for him about that. Spends time bringing it up in the debates, instead of bringing up other stuff in the debates. Eventually agrees to release the speeches she got paid so much for if he’ll release his tax returns, or something.
So after a huge buildup, he reluctantly but eventually releases 'em and – oh, he’s got a lot of income, and he pays a lot of taxes, and donates a lot to charity? Huh.
I hope that’s not it, but it’d be hilarious if it were true.
Might as well make a big fuss over something inconsequential when you also retain the ability to change your mind later. Phrased that way, this is Trump’s only consistent behavior.
It’s also a possibility that he donates a lot of money to liberal charitable causes (such as Planned Parenthood)…I sort of doubt that this is true, but it remains plausible.
Well, Trump certainly threw a big enough hissy fit when Obama presented his long form birth certificate so maybe he’s desperate to try the same thing on someone else.
But then, tax returns will be just one thing out of a hundred that Clinton and her allies are hitting Trump on so it won’t be all that deflating if they were a big nothing.
I was under the impression that Trump’s tax returns are currently being audited by the IRS. I doubt his tax lawyers would want the tax returns released during the audit. Why take the chance of pissing off the IRS during an audit.
Is it possible that the WaPo writer wasn’t aware of the audit when they made up the possibilities listed in the OP?
Let’s stipulate that it would be inappropriate to release a tax return while you’re being audited. I don’t agree but let’s just let Trump be correct on this. Why could he not release tax returns from previous years? Why can’t he say, “My CPA firm says it’s best if I don’t release the 2015 return during an audit, but here you go, here’s my 2014 return”?
We don’t know that he’s not going to release them. The legitimate reason he’d have to not release them is that they’re going to be very complicated and it would be easy for the press and his opponents to gin up a scandal about them. On the other hand he may be hiding something actually scandalous, although that seems unlikely to me, more likely if he is hiding anything it’s that he’s paid at a very low rate or there’s something he hasn’t paid.
If he doesn’t release his returns he will lose votes. His campaign has already lowered the trust level among voters and this won’t help.
Well that’s true. He SAYS he is not going to release them, but it is quite clear that there is a complete disconnect between what Trump says today and what he says tomorrow and what he actually ends up doing…
How exactly does presenting the same information to the public, you sent to the IRS ‘piss them off’ has the IRS ever said you can’t show other people your filings?
Even if they are auditing his current tax filings what stops him from presenting ones from previous years. According to him they audit him every year, so the IRS already had oportunity to review them, nothing further to be done.
He’s presenting a story only the least informed people in the country could buy. They rest of us file our taxes each year and understand how it works.
Maybe his concern is his tax atorneys actually just suck so the IRS has to audit him each year to straighten out the discrepancies and he doesn’t want us to see that. I’m picturing his tax filings looking like a failed homework assignment with red pen corrections everywhere.
And that applies to almost every issue discussed about Trump. We don’t know what he’s going to do, we don’t even know if he knows what he’s going to do. What we do know is that we don’t know, and that should be the overwhelming argument against electing him. Instead, each side grabs one part of his multiply self contradicting statements and insists that’s the one that defines him.
Then you were aware that not releasing his tax returns during an IRS audit was a major concern of Trump and his (not Nixon’s) tax attorneys. Yet you forgot to list that in your OP. I’m shocked. :rolleyes:
Of course. :smack: Trump and his tax attorneys have actually dealt with IRS audits year after year but based on the fact that you file your taxes every year, you want me to believe that you have a better understanding of the legalities of surviving an IRS audit. Let me see… experienced tax attorneys or somebody on the internet? hmmm. Tough choice.
Here’s another article on the subject where Trump says he will release them. Well sort of. It tries to present reasons why he’s covering something up, but as usual there’s no there there. If we get to see the returns we’ll find out what’s in them. If not, it just makes his election even less likely. This is all a political tactic to raise doubt about him. Hardly necessary in his case.