Donald Trump Now Refusing to Release His Taxes Before November

Basic Expectation of All Presidential Candidates Goes Ignored

Donald Trump has not only not released his taxes, he is refusing to do so before November. The Associated Press reports the GOP presidential nominee “doesn’t expect to release his tax returns before November, citing an ongoing audit of his finances.”

An audit would not prevent Trump from releasing them to the public.

Trump “said he will release them after the audit ends. But he said that he wouldn’t overrule his lawyers and instruct them to release his returns if the audit hasn’t concluded by November.”

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” Trump told the AP Tuesday.

From 1976 to 2012, every presidential and vice presidential candidate – not just nominee, but candidate – has released their tax returns, except for seven: Jerry Brown, Pat Buchanan, Mike Huckabee, Steve Forbes, Rudy Giuliani, Richard Lugar, Ralph Nader, according to a 2012 MSNBC article, citing Politifact.

In 2008, then Sen. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton released six years worth of returns. Challenger John McCain released two.

“Opponents have long criticized the billionaire real estate mogul for not releasing his tax returns,” Talking Points Memo adds. “Former GOP nominee Mitt Romney said he believes there’s a ‘bombshell’ lurking in Trump’s taxes.”

“Either he’s not as anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing,” Gov. Romney said in February.

The Tax History Project shows Hillary Clinton has released 15 consecutive years of returns – every tax return since 2000. It shows Bernie Sanders has released his return for 2014. 

Jeb Bush released 34 years – every return from 1981 to 2014. Ted Cruz released four years: 2011-2014. Other 2016 candidates have also released theirs – Trump is the only current presidential candidate to not release at least one year’s of returns.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license