Donald Trump Paid No Income Taxes for Two Years

While Refusing to Release His Tax Returns Now, There Are Some Currently Available

For two years back in the late 70’s, Donald Trump paid zero income taxes. The brash billionaire is currently refusing to release his tax returns, claiming he will once an IRS audit concludes. But Trump mocked Mitt Romney’s delaying tactics in releasing his returns when the former Massachusetts governor was the 2012 GOP presidential nominee – as did the “Tax Dodgers,” in front of, ironically, Trump Tower that year:

To date, since the 1970’s, only seven vice presidential and presidential candidates have refused to release their returns.

The Washington Post Friday afternoon reports “Trump once revealed his income tax returns. They showed he didn’t pay a cent.”

That revelation comes from “a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators,” the Post reports, which “revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income.”

Trump was asked last week by ABC News what his tax rate was. His response: “none of your business.”

Some have asked for proof that Trump is even being audited at all. The Post reports that “Trump has released a letter from his tax lawyers that said his tax returns had been audited by the IRS since 2002, and that audits on the returns since 2009 were still underway.”

But there certainly are other years Trump could release. While Bernie Sanders has released only one year, 2014, Hillary Clinton has released “decades” worth, the Post observes.

Why won’t Trump release the returns from years the IRS has completed their audits? His tax lawyers’ letter “said returns from 2002 to 2008 had been closed administratively by the IRS, meaning their audits had been completed. Trump said in an interview he would still not release those returns because ‘they’re all linked.'”

Some dispute that is a valid reason, and “experts say that Trump is free to release his tax records,” the Post notes. “President Richard Nixon released his returns while under audit. Nothing, including an audit, ‘prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information,’ an IRS spokesman said.”

Some responses via Twitter:

 

Image by Michael Fleshman via Flickr and a CC license