Trump's Tax Returns

[Dos Equis]

Is he hiding something?

Mitt Romney: It's 'Disqualifying' for Trump Not to Release Tax Returns

Image: Mitt Romney: It's 'Disqualifying' for Trump Not to Release Tax Returns
Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Former U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday criticized Donald Trump for declining to release his tax returns, saying the only explanation was that the documents contained a "bombshell" about the real estate mogul.

"It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters," Romney said in a Facebook post about Trump, who became the likely Republican nominee when his rivals dropped out last week.

"There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them," Romney said. "Given Mr. Trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it's a bombshell of unusual size."

Trump has said that he will make public his tax returns on the completion of an audit.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/mitt-romney-disqualifying-trump/2016/05/11/id/728380/#ixzz48SoWroXo

[240 is Back]

trump isn't worth ten billion, and he claimed.
and he probably paid little to no taxes, as do most very rich people.

Being worth 1.2 billion doesn't suck.  But it ain't $10B.   He attributes much of his worth to his "name value", which is nice, but if he actually earned $150 mil last year, it's a little embarrassing.  Bragging as much as he does, it'll be a little tough on him to show he didn't raise his worth from 8 to 10 billion last year, as he claimed.

[Dos Equis]

Donald Trump handed over tax returns in casino bids
By Eric Bradner, CNN
May 11, 2016

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump insists he won't release his tax returns during his 2016 presidential run because those returns are the subject of ongoing Internal Revenue Service audits.

When he's had casinos on the line, it's been a different story.

Trump has handed over tax returns in the midst of audits before -- to state gambling officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as part of the process of seeking casino licenses in those states.

The returns haven't been publicly accessible, but they were used by the state investigators who reviewed those applications.

In Pennsylvania, Trump's attorneys included tax returns from 2000 through 2004 in a set of documents that the state's Gaming Control Board stamped as "received" on February 9, 2006.

It came as Trump attempted to build a casino in Philadelphia -- a project that state officials ultimately rejected amid fears he'd use it to lure gamblers across state lines to his properties in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the tax rate is lower.

He was required to turn over tax returns in New Jersey, as well, where state law requires five years' worth of tax returns from casino license applicants. A spokesman for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission confirmed that Trump's tax returns were mandatory, but said they'd only have been made public if they were introduced as evidence in court proceedings over casino licenses -- which didn't happen in Trump's case.

At least some of the federal and state tax returns he gave Pennsylvania were the subject of ongoing audits at the time. Trump in March released a letter from his attorneys saying that every tax return he's filed since 2002 was audited, and the returns for 2009 and every year since are still the subject of ongoing audits.

Asked why Trump would share returns that were the subject of ongoing audits with state casino licensing officials, but won't release his tax returns now, spokeswoman Hope Hicks would only say in an email Wednesday: "Mr. Trump has always said that when the routine audit is complete he would release his tax returns."

Increasingly, the presumptive Republican nominee is under pressure to release his returns.

Last year, Trump had said he'd release his tax returns. But he has since backed off that pledge, citing ongoing audits and saying he'll offer his returns as soon as those audits are closed.

He told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that "there's nothing to learn from them," noting that he has offered a financial disclosure detailing his personal wealth. After the AP reported that Trump would release his tax returns after the election, he took to Twitter to once again point to the end of the audits as the date he'd share them.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, laid into Trump during an event in Camden County, New Jersey, on Wednesday, after a man in the audience raised the issue.
"When you run for president, especially when you become the nominee, that is kind of expected," Clinton said. "My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns -- we've got eight years on our website right now. So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?"

The pro-Clinton group American Bridge on Wednesday launched a new website, TrumpReleaseYourReturns. com, calling on Trump to do just that.

"Voters deserve to know whether or not Trump pays his fair share in taxes, for example, or if he's too cheap to give to charitable causes," said American Bridge President Jessica Mackler.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee and a fierce Trump critic, reiterated his own call for Trump to release his tax returns in a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon.

"It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service," Romney said. "Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate's representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest."

Other presidential candidates have released their tax returns amid audits, too. In 1973, President Richard Nixon publicly released his returns while they were under audit.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/donald-trump-casino-licenses-tax-returns/index.html

[240 is Back]

Ben Carson was using the defense "trump already handed over his financials, which are way more detailed"

however, in those financials, Trump estimated his "name" value to be worth billions.  Entirely made up document, no evidence, just a braggadocio claim of ten billion dollars.  He claimed 8 billion earler, so that was quite a jump.

The real story is probably that trump claimed big losses, didn't pay much in taxes (which is fine - although he did say he wants to make the rich pay more).   He probably doesn't want the world knowing he took a loss or isn't really worth ten billion.

[Dos Equis]

Trump: My Tax Rate Is 'None of Your Business'
Friday, 13 May 2016

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pushed back on Friday against renewed calls for him to release his tax returns before the election, saying the rate that he pays is "none of your business."

Trump, who has all but locked up the Republican Party's nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election, has said the Internal Revenue Service is auditing his returns and he wants to wait until the review is over before making them public.

"It should be and I hope it's before the election," Trump told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Trump, a billionaire real estate developer who has boasted of his wealth during the campaign, was asked why he had been willing in the past to release his taxes to Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials when seeking casino licenses, even though he was being audited by the IRS.

"At the time it didn't make any difference to me. Now it does," Trump said.

Pressed on what tax rate he pays, Trump refused to say.

"It's none of your business," he said. "Before 1976, people didn't do it. It used to be a secret thing," he added.

U.S. presidential nominees have voluntarily released their tax returns for decades.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and her rival, Bernie Sanders, have both released their returns. Clinton began calling this week on Trump to do the same. Sanders released his 2014 return in April, while former first lady Clinton posted the past eight years of her and her husband's tax returns on her website in August.

Trump has said there is nothing voters can learn from his tax filing. Tax filings show sources of income, both from within the United States and other countries, as well as charitable giving, investments, deductions and other financial information.

Trump said his company was "clean."

"I don't have Swiss bank accounts, I don't have offshore accounts," he said.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, has been scathing in his criticism of Trump and said this week it was "disqualifying" for a nominee to refuse to make his tax returns public.

"There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them," Romney said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/US-GOP-2016-Trump-Taxes/2016/05/13/id/728655/#ixzz48q2gdNAj

[240 is Back]

Donald Trump on Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns in 2012: ‘Better off Just to Release Them Now’

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/13/donald-trump-mitt-romneys-tax-returns-2012-better-off-just-release-now/

[Dos Equis]

Trump wants to see VP's tax returns, but won't share his
By Theodore Schleifer and Jim Acosta, CNN
Thu May 19, 2016

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump is asking vice presidential hopefuls for their tax returns -- even though he is not yet releasing his.

It is standard practice for potential vice presidential picks to submit detailed financial paperwork, including tax returns, to the person who could choose them to serve as their No. 2 in the White House. But it would be unprecedented in modern times for that vice president to be the only one on the ticket who has disclosed theirs.

A Trump adviser confirmed Wednesday that presumptive Republican presidential nominee will require the men and women he is considering for his vice president to submit them to his vetting team. The VP nominees' records wouldn't be made public. Trump, meanwhile, has said he will only release his when his routine audits come to a close -- something he admits could come after Election Day.

Trump's resistance to publicly releasing his tax documents leaves major questions for voters weighing a candidate whose campaign is staked on his business acumen and the fact that he says he is "very, very rich" -- and would mark a major break with decades of precedent set by the nominees of the two major political parties.

Trump has maintained that there is little that people could learn from his returns. He has said that "I fight like hell not to pay" much in taxes, but he has declined to release the rate in advance.

"None of your business," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos earlier this month.

That has been fodder for Hillary Clinton, whose aides have wondered aloud about what could be in the returns.

"Because when you run for president, especially when you become the nominee that is kind of expected," Clinton said in New Jersey last week. "My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns, we've got eight years on our website right now. So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?"

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns-vice-president/index.html

[Dos Equis]

Washington Post-ABC News poll May 16-19, 2016

Q: All major presidential candidates in the last 40 years have publicly released their tax returns before the election. Trump has said he may not do this. Do you think Trump should release his tax returns before the November election?

Results by Registered voters

•Yes: 64 percent.
•No: 31 percent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/05/22/National-Politics/Polling/question_16345.xml?uuid=I5gjGh_SEeaCwqfcsxMofQ&tid=a_inl#

[240 is Back]

trump is everything the idiot american people want.   He's loud, rude, trashy.  He's a walking freaking clickbait candidate.

60% of the nation gets their only daily news from whatever facebook puts in their morning lineup.   Realize that.



Trump is an idiot, for idiots.  He said Mitt should release them.  But he doesn't have to.  ANd really, he could sodomize a baby seal and people would vote for him because "he's not hilary..."    Idiots all around.  I will mock them daily on getbig every damn time Pres. Trump does something idiotic and liberal.  I'll bump every quote, every time... cause maybe in 2020, they'll decide voting clickbait isn't wise.

[Dos Equis]

Corey Lewandowski: Trump Worth $10B, Will Release Tax Returns After Audit
By Mark Swanson   |   Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski made an appearance on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday to reaffirm the presumptive GOP nominee's net worth, and to again address the issue of releasing tax returns.

Lewandowski reiterated that Trump is worth $10 billion and that the real estate mogul will release his returns when the IRS has finished with its audit.

However, the show's hosts zeroed in on a Forbes magazine report in 2015 that estimated Trump's worth to be $125 million and said releasing the tax returns would clear it up. 

"Your tax returns on a yearly basis don't tell you what your worth, what they show is what your income is," Lewandowski said. "And Mr. Trump has already showed what his income is — $557 million last year. He has a massive cash flow. Very, very little debt. … He's worth $10 billion."

When pressed about the issue of transparency and that the IRS has said Trump may release the returns before the audit is finished, Lewandowski defended Trump's position.

"The difference is when you release them, and the IRS has the ability to scrutinize them and everybody else has the ability to scrutinize, you don't know if they're going to change or not," Lewandowski said.

"So let the IRS finish their work and as soon as that's done, he's going to release those tax returns."

Lewandowski even pressed the show's hosts to put pressure on the IRS. "If you can get the IRS to move forward, you're better than I am," Lewandowski joked.

"You can go get it done," Lewandowski urged. "You guys are the investigative journalists. Get the IRS to finish the work. Get it done then Mr. Trump will release those returns."

Lewandowski also said that all monies raised for veterans at a January event in Iowa will be distributed before Memorial Day.

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Corey-Lewandowski-Trump-Worth-Tax-Returns-Release/2016/05/24/id/730402/#ixzz49bDQ7rjz

[240 is Back]

Corey Lewandowski: Trump Worth $10B, Will Release Tax Returns After Audit

it's a perpetual audit that will not end, so we'll never see the results.

more and more financial analysts are pointing out the particular filings trump used aren't in line with the wealth claims he's making.

Trump exaggerates how great everything else is, why wouldn't it be the same with his fortune?

[Dos Equis]

Senator Trolls Trump With Bill Requiring Presidential Nominees To Release Tax Returns
“Tax returns deliver honest answers to key questions from the American public,” says Sen. Ron Wyden.
05/25/2016
Igor Bobic
Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

MIKE THEILER / REUTERS
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wants to legally require presidential nominees to release their tax returns.

WASHINGTON — Though every major party nominee since 1976 has released his tax returns while running for president, the practice has never been required by law. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wants to change that.

The senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which handles tax issues, introduced a bill on Wednesday that would force presidential candidates to release their most recent tax returns. The Presidential Tax Transparency Act, as the bill is called, would require candidates to make their latest three years of tax returns public no later than 15 days after becoming the nominee. If they do not comply, the treasury secretary would be directed to do so for them, provided the appropriate redaction of sensitive personal information.

“Since the days of Watergate, the American people have had an expectation that nominees to be the leader of the free world not hide their finances and personal tax returns,” Wyden said in a statement.

“Tax returns deliver honest answers to key questions from the American public,” he added. “Do you even pay taxes? Do you give to charity? Are you abusing tax loopholes at the expense of middle class families? Are you keeping your money offshore? People have a right to know.”

Only one major party presidential candidate is refusing to release any of his tax returns to the public right now, and his name is Donald Trump. The presumptive GOP nominee has said he cannot release his returns because they are currently under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS, however, has clarified there is nothing legally preventing someone from making a return public while it’s under audit.

Trump’s campaign has argued that Americans simply aren’t interested in the Manhattan real estate mogul’s tax returns. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, on Tuesday even claimed that there is “nothing to learn” from them.

“I strongly disagree with that,” Wyden told The Huffington Post on a Wednesday call with reporters. “For literally four decades now, Democrats, Republican, candidates regardless of party have made this information available.”

Indeed, there is evidence that refusing to release any returns may hurt Trump in the general election. According to a Morning Consult survey released Tuesday, 67 percent of registered voters — including 60 percent of Republicans — said presidential candidates should release their tax returns.

Senate Democrats have stirred the pot on the issue of tax returns before. During the 2012 election, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) infamously claimed that Mitt Romney paid no taxes, upping the pressure on the Republican standard-bearer to release his tax returns. When he finally did so, they showed he paid a low 14 percent tax rate in 2011.

Asked on the call whether he had any communication with the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, Wyden said only that he had not spoken to the former secretary of state.

It is questionable how far such a bill would go in a Republican-controlled Senate that is slowly coming around to supporting their nominee. But Wyden said he would try to round up GOP co-sponsors anyway, feeling encouraged by recent comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said that “most candidates” have released returns under a long-standing “tradition.”

Wyden also batted down a question about whether his bill, which would force nominees to release private information, conflicted with his strong stance in support of privacy. The senator from Oregon has been a vocal critic of government surveillance programs, such as those revealed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

He noted that nominees seeking confirmation before the Senate Finance Committee, for example, must also submit such personal information.

“If somehow we’re breaking a tradition here as presidential nominees by making this information available, we’re saying the commander in chief is held to a standard lower than an assistant secretary,” he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-wyden-donald-trump-tax-returns_us_5745af8ee4b055bb1170be9c

[Dos Equis]

Shady accounting underpins Trump’s wealth
The GOP nominee is rich. But how rich depends on odd accounting and subjective criteria.
By Ben White
05/31/16

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-money-net-worth-223662#ixzz4AFw3gnVb

[240 is Back]

Shady accounting underpins Trump’s wealth
The GOP nominee is rich. But how rich depends on odd accounting and subjective criteria.
By Ben White
05/31/16

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-money-net-worth-223662#ixzz4AFw3gnVb

he's not worth as much as he claimed.  And his claim of "I went form 8 bil to 10 bil in the past year" are nothing more than him just valuing his own name, and growing it by a lot. 

[James]

Fact: You are either going to live in Trump town or Hillary town, that's the 2 choices. You can protest all you want, but that doesn't accomplish anything but help elect Hillary in the end and get you moved to Hillary Town.

[240 is Back]

Fact: You are either going to live in Trump town or Hillary town, that's the 2 choices. You can protest all you want, but that doesn't accomplish anything but help elect Hillary in the end and get you moved to Hillary Town.

this kind of thinking is what has led us to this 2-party bullshit, where we're choosing between Dem (hilary) and Dem/mexican hater (Trump).    They're both inconsistent flakes with strong liberal backgrounds who tell a lot of lies daily, and yes, they both do.

Maybe we just wait a month or 3... see how johnson does in the polls, see how he does in the debate.

[jjbones]

Trump should hold back his tax returns until we all get a peek at the Clinton Initiative books ... that would be an interesting read. 

[Dos Equis]

Buffett Challenges Trump to Exchange Tax Returns, Answer Questions
Monday, 01 Aug 2016

U.S. investor Warren Buffett, speaking at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, challenged Republican Donald Trump on Monday to release his tax returns.

Trump has said he would not release his returns until the Internal Revenue Service has completed an audit.

"Now I've got news for him, I'm under audit too and I would be delighted to meet him anyplace, anytime, before the election," said Buffett, the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway. "I'll bring my tax return, he can bring his tax return ... and let people ask us questions about the items that are on there."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/warren-buffett-trump-tax/2016/08/01/id/741635/#ixzz4G7rceGuS

[240 is Back]

Trump's tax returns just might show millions of $ coming from russian lenders.

given his propensity to kneepad Putin and ditch NATO and force gOP to adopt a pro-russian stance against Ukraine, people may not be happy.

Toss in the fact he'll deny everything about russia EXCEPT borrowing money from them

[Dos Equis]

Donald Trump Ducks Tax Disclosure
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
AUG. 1, 2016
 
As Donald Trump’s tweets pile one atop another, generating sensational headlines, issues of true substance are tending to get lost in the shuffle. None is more important for voters to keep in mind than the failure of Mr. Trump to disclose his full income tax returns, something he is not likely to do by Election Day.

He is the first major party candidate since 1976 — since Watergate, essentially — to deny voters that vital measure of credibility. It is not required by law that candidates furnish their returns. But Americans have come to expect it.

The interest in Mr. Trump’s case is particularly high. He is running for the White House partly as a business wizard, but is he really as rich and talented as he boasts? Is he as philanthropic as he claims with his reputed billions? Has he truly no conflicts of interest in Russia, whose computer hackers he has bizarrely invited to spy on Hillary Clinton, his campaign rival?

These questions are of Mr. Trump’s own making, and a timely release of his tax returns would provide some answers. “There’s nothing to learn from them,” he tried to insist in May, arguing that he would not make the returns public until after an Internal Revenue Service audit is complete.

But the I.R.S. says Mr. Trump is free to release the returns at any time and to defend their accuracy, just as President Richard Nixon did while he was undergoing an audit. In the past, Mr. Trump has not hesitated to attack the I.R.S. as “very unfair,” but now he stands before the voters using the agency as a shield against disclosure.

We can only imagine how livid the Trump tweets would be if Mrs. Clinton were failing to meet this standard of campaign transparency. She has posted eight years of tax returns on her campaign website for all to see.

Mr. Trump’s contention that there’s nothing to learn from his tax returns should be a red alert to voters. Four years ago, Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, resisted disclosure, and Mr. Trump was among those pressing him to release his returns. When Mr. Romney finally complied, voters were surprised to discover that his effective tax rate was 14 percent — well below the official 35 percent rate for those in his top bracket. When asked about his own tax rate, Mr. Trump snapped: “None of your business.”

Appearing last week on Fox TV, Mr. Trump looked back and rued the Romney disclosure, declaring, “He might have lost the election over that.” Might Mr. Trump be worried about how his own returns would look to voters? He brags that he aims to pay as little in taxes as possible under the law, which probably means claiming tax breaks that ordinary voters do not exercise. In 1981, a report by New Jersey gambling regulators showed Mr. Trump had not paid any taxes for two years in the 1970s because he could report negative income as a developer.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.
   
The voters deserve to know what Mr. Trump is hiding, particularly considering his history of bankruptcies, the government investigations of Trump University and other dodgy parts of his branded universe. As the campaign rolls toward the fall, pressure will grow on Mr. Trump to be far more transparent than he has been. Responding with another pithy tweet won’t do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/opinion/donald-trump-ducks-tax-disclosure.html?_r=0

[Dos Equis]

He's obviously hiding something, but if he reduced his tax burden to zero he should get a medal. 

NY Times: Trump May Not Have Paid Taxes for 2 Decades
By Todd Beamon   |   Sunday, 02 Oct 2016

Donald Trump may have legally avoided paying federal income taxes for as long as 18 years because of a $916 million loss he declared on his 1995 tax returns from his failed business dealings, The New York Times reports.

"He has a vast benefit from his destruction" in the early 1990s, Joel Rosenfeld, an assistant real estate professor at New York University, told the Times.

He said that he would offer this advice to a client with a return like Trump's from that year: "Do you realize you can create $916 million in income without paying a nickel in taxes?"

Rosenfeld was one of several tax experts the newspaper hired to review three pages of the Republican nominee's returns that the Times said had been mailed to a reporter last month.

The information has never been disclosed publicly.

Trump, who has steadily refused to release his taxes pending the completion of an IRS audit, declined to comment on the report.

But the Trump campaign slammed the publication of the three pages from the nominee's returns — andTrump's lawyer accused the Times of breaking the law because his client did not authorize publication of such information.

And early Sunday, Trump tweeted that he knows "our complex tax laws better than anyone..."

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, used the Times story to needle Trump about not releasing his tax returns and contending during his first debate with Clinton that not paying federal income taxes would show he was "smart."

Mook said in a statement that Trump apparently avoided paying taxes for two decades "while tens of millions of working families paid theirs. He calls that 'smart.'" Mook added: "Now that the gig is up, why doesn't he go ahead and release his returns to show us all how 'smart' he really is?"

According to the report, Trump's 1995 tax records "reveal the extraordinary tax benefits" that the nominee "derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s."

These include his three bankrupt Atlantic City casinos, the failed Trump Shuttle airline and his "ill-timed" purchase of the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1988 for $407.5 million, the Times reports.

The experts said that regulations giving special advantages to wealthy filers would have allowed Trump to use the $916 million loss in 1995 to cancel out more than $50 million in taxable income over the next 18 years.

The report also cautioned that Trump's "taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown."

"Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," the campaign said in a statement.

"That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes.

"Mr. Trump knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for president and he is the only one that knows how to fix it," the statement continued.

"The only news here is that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained."

Marc Kasowitz, a Trump lawyer, told the Times in an emailed letter that publishing the tax records was illegal and threatened "prompt initiation of appropriate legal action."

The report comes after Trump retorted "that makes me smart" when Democrat Hillary Clinton attacked him during Monday's debate, saying he has not paid federal income taxes.

Despite the huge loss, however, nothing in the 1995 returns suggested wrongdoing by the nominee, the experts told the Times, though the amount could have prompted scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service.

"The IRS, when they see a negative $916 million, that has to pop out," Rosenfeld said.

Since 1976, every major party presidential nominee has released tax returns. Clinton has publicly released nearly 40 years' worth, and Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has released 10 years of his tax returns.

But after initially saying that he would make his returns public during the course of his campaign, Trump switched course, citing what he said were years of ongoing IRS audits and the advice of his attorneys to keep them private as those audits proceed.

Former IRS officials have expressed skepticism that anyone would be audited so frequently, and they and other tax experts say there's no prohibition on Trump releasing his returns even if he is.

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Trump-taxes-paid-New-York-Times/2016/10/01/id/751224/#ixzz4M2deKdVd

[Dos Equis]

Hillary Clinton Avoided Taxes the Same Way Trump Did
by PATRICK HOWLEY
2 Oct 2016

Hillary Clinton used the same exact method as Donald Trump to pay less tax, according to her own tax returns released by her presidential campaign.
Donald Trump reportedly avoided paying federal income taxes by reporting massive losses on his 1995 tax return, which the New York Times somehow obtained before Trump himself released it.

The Wall Street Journal describes the loophole that Trump used:

The tax treatment of losses, bound to become a subject of national debate, is a typically noncontroversial feature of the income-tax system. The government doesn’t pay net refunds when business owners lose money, but it lets taxpayers use those losses to smooth their tax payments as they make money. That reflects the fact that “the natural business cycle of a taxpayer may exceed 12 months,” according to a congressional report.

Typically, for federal returns, such net operating losses can be carried backward for two years to offset past income and then kept on a taxpayer’s books for 20 years, though Mr. Trump’s losses could only qualify for a 15-year carryforward under the law at the time.

The Clinton campaign has hammered Trump on his unreleased tax returns. When pundits on cable news now refer to the “Taxes” issue, they’re usually talking about Trump’s personal “taxes” issue, not the taxes paid by American voters.

But the Zerohedge blog first noticed something that could undercut Clinton’s ability to hit Trump on his “net operating losses.”

Clinton’s 2015 tax returns reveal that Hillary Clinton also reported capital gains losses in order to lessen her tax burden through a “carryover.”

Page 17 of the tax returns show “Capital Gains and Losses” for “WILLIAM J CLINTON & HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON.”

The Clintons reported a “Long-term capital loss carryover” of $699,540.

Thus, the Clintons reported a “Net long-term capital gain or (loss)” of “-699,540.”

Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill did not immediately return Breitbart News’s request for comment.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/02/hillary-clinton-avoided-taxes-way-trump/

[Dos Equis]

Trump Likely to File, Release 2015 Taxes This Month
By Theodore Bunker   |    Wednesday, 05 Oct 2016

After the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said his "current returns will be released as soon as they're complete."

Last year Trump filed his taxes on October 15, presumably after receiving a six-month extension from the IRS. If he used an extension this year, he's due to file his taxes on October 17, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On Saturday The New York Times published a report that Trump could have legally avoided taxes for 18 years after declaring an almost $1 billion loss in 1995.

If Trump were to release his 2015 return, it could work in his favor. He could file a "politically palatable" statement, in the Journal's words, similarly to former GOP candidate Mitt Romney.

In 2012, Romney released his 2011 tax return in September, a move Trump criticized as coming too close to the election. He chose not to deduct almost $2 million in charitable donations in order to pay an effective tax rate of 13 percent, which he'd promised he would.
 
Even if Trump does choose not to take deductions as Romney did, he would still have the opportunity to amend his return long after the election is over, up to three years from now.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/trump-file-release-taxes/2016/10/05/id/751822/#ixzz4MEuc6O18

[Soul Crusher]

Trump Likely to File, Release 2015 Taxes This Month
By Theodore Bunker   |    Wednesday, 05 Oct 2016

After the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said his "current returns will be released as soon as they're complete."

Last year Trump filed his taxes on October 15, presumably after receiving a six-month extension from the IRS. If he used an extension this year, he's due to file his taxes on October 17, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On Saturday The New York Times published a report that Trump could have legally avoided taxes for 18 years after declaring an almost $1 billion loss in 1995.

If Trump were to release his 2015 return, it could work in his favor. He could file a "politically palatable" statement, in the Journal's words, similarly to former GOP candidate Mitt Romney.

In 2012, Romney released his 2011 tax return in September, a move Trump criticized as coming too close to the election. He chose not to deduct almost $2 million in charitable donations in order to pay an effective tax rate of 13 percent, which he'd promised he would.
 
Even if Trump does choose not to take deductions as Romney did, he would still have the opportunity to amend his return long after the election is over, up to three years from now.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/trump-file-release-taxes/2016/10/05/id/751822/#ixzz4MEuc6O18

Its a non issue as far as i am concerned.  If the IRS is ok with all his filings  - why arnt liberals?

[Dos Equis]

Its a non issue as far as i am concerned.  If the IRS is ok with all his filings  - why arnt liberals?

I think he should release them, but not because of the manufactured issue about whether he paid taxes.  As I said the other day, if he reduced his tax liability to zero he should get a medal.