Maybe she taught him how to write.
The pubbies are making dire threats about publishing Democrats’ returns now, which is not exactly the same thing, now is it? I’m pretty sure they don’t really want to start that sort of war, although the ones yammering the loudest really ought to have theirs published.
The Dem’s returns are already published.
Personally, I think that anyone that seeks public office should have all their finances transparent to the public.
That that means that people with things to hide in their finances won’t seek public office is a feature.
I don’t follow politics on Twitter but sometimes Twitter feeds them to me anyhow and I had the displeasure of seeing a Don Jr. tweet along the lines of “See? No crimes in there!” So I ask you this… is there actually a box on your tax forms for listing your crimes? If you intend to defraud the government check here and make sure to itemize your schemes?
I think Trump’s defenses will follow the standard pattern:
I didn’t do anything wrong.
If something looks wrong it’s because my enemies hate me and are just trying to make me look bad.
Those rules doesn’t apply to me anyhow because Hunter Biden.
I released the tax returns myself to show how innocent I am and anything that indicates otherwise was planted.
Go look at Hunter Biden, he’s the real criminal.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Or, with sufficient advance notice, they’ll hide things so well that nobody will dig far enough, because everything in the first few layers will look just fine.
Between opposition research and investigative journalists, I’m sure at least some of it will be caught, enough to make politicians nervous about hiding things.
With the current system of finances being private, there is little to be done there legally. If it is legal to pull up a politician’s tax returns, get their bank statements, or look into other financial matters that would be private to a private citizen, it’s going to be very hard to hide illicit activities.
FWIW, there is. IRS publications even direct you on where to report various types of illegal income.
Illegal activities.
Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.
I also saw a section on income from stolen property (you have to report it in the year you steal it) and was directed to another publication if I wanted to read about “Illegal bribes and kickbacks”.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting DJT or anyone else would actually fill that part in (or would they?), I just always think it’s funny that they have a “please list your crimes here” line.
I think it’s because people can be charged with tax evasion so you have to give them a way to actually pay the taxes in the first place.
This may also serve the function of adding another crime – filing a false tax form – to what they can ding criminals for. It might also be easier to prove somehow…?
It seems like that should fall under the same precedent that says that a criminal cannot be charged for not registering a gun in their possession, as that is a form of self incrimination. Similarly, being required to list your crimes on your tax forms seems to be the same sort of self incrimination.
And, similar to how if a criminal will still be charged with possession and use of a gun if caught, if someone is caught doing making money illegally, they would not only face whatever punishment is appropriate for those crimes, but also owe the taxes on them, but more of as an audit, rather than a crime.
Anyway, that would probably only make sense if our criminal justice system made sense, which it generally doesn’t.
Intentionally failing to report taxable income is normally a crime, not simply a matter of an audit.
Yes, I am aware of that. That’s why I was saying that that should be changed, as being required to report your own criminal activity is self incrimination. That that is not how it currently is utterly irrelevant to what I said.
While you are required to report your income, you are only requested to report the nature of that income. The IRS would like to know the nature of it, but unless it affects the tax treatment of the income, it doesn’t really matter. If you get audited, the IRS’s concern will be if they find or impute income that you didn’t report - not that they don’t know what caused you to come into some money that you did report. If you don’t cooperate with their inquiries, you may find yourself paying self-employment tax on income that you didn’t need to because the IRS cannot verify that it wasn’t part of a trade or business. They can also deny any deductions that you take because they might believe the income was from trafficking in controlled substances, and there’s a specific law that makes deducting expenses in that line of work not allowed. But none of this will cause them to require you to answer as to the nature of the income; you’ll pay more in tax, but will not be subject to criminal penalties for evading income taxes.
Trump gave up being a private citizen in 2016.
… and became one again on January 20th, 2021.
Why is another man’s taxes any of our business?
Can we demand the returns of Hillary Clinton?
Sure
Trump is the only one trying to keep his a secret, you know.
The financial dealings of the President is very much our business. It’s not just some random “man”