Trump’s refusal to release tax returns not surprising
Since the day he rode down the escalator in his iconic building in New York City to announce his bid for president, Donald Trump has been anything but a traditional national candidate.
From self-financing his campaign, to snubbing the Republican Party establishment, to defying long-standing public-opinion polls, Trump has been a political machine of one.
It’s a strategy that has worked wonders. He is today the last man standing from the original field of 17 candidates for the GOP nomination for president.
Therefore, as the presumed nominee going into the party convention in Cleveland in July, Trump must expect that every aspect of his personal and public life will be under scrutiny.
The public’s right to know all it can about the individual who could be the next leader of the most powerful nation on earth is unassailable.
And for decades, two pieces of information from the candidates for president have been made available to the American people: tax returns and medical records.
The financial and physical health of the man or woman who would be president is important. It all has to do with trust.
Given that, Trump’s refusal to make public his tax returns and his dismissive attitude when asked about his tax rate are unacceptable. They suggest an unwillingness to recognize that being a candidate for public office is not the same as being a private businessman.
Trump, who has never sought election before, is using the tissue-thin argument that his taxes are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service and, therefore, cannot be released. The IRS has no such restriction.
But he has gone a step further by saying that he does not believe voters have a right to see his returns.
Effective tax rate
And that wasn’t all. During an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Trump was asked by host George Stephanopoulos what effective tax rate he pays.
“It’s none of your business,” the self-described billionaire real-estate developer replied. “You’ll see it when I release, but I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”
Yes, the presumed Republican presidential nominee publicly stated that he does whatever is necessary to pay as little in taxes as he can.
Four years ago, another very rich GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, was forced to address the fact that his effective tax rate was below 20 percent. It fed into the perception that the rich in this country don’t pay their fair share when it comes to taxes.
Here’s another problem with Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns: He claims that he’s worth $10 billion, but there’s no way to tell if he’s exaggerating other than to look at his filings.
Indeed, reporters over the years have tried to develop a financial profile of the man who now wants to the president, but without access to his books they have had to depend on sources and make assumptions.
By saying that he tries very hard to pay as little tax as possible, Trump has opened the door to a myriad of questions about how he works around the nation’s tax laws.
The New York Times quoted Kenneth A. Gross, a lawyer who deals regularly with tax issues, as saying:
“Obviously it could raise issues about deductions, reporting of income, all sorts of things that we worry about when we file our tax returns. There’s obviously something of interest because it’s being audited. It would be, I think, important to see what’s in these returns before he becomes the nominee of the Republican Party.”
There’s a reason why full disclosure of a candidate’s finances are important: Voters need to know that the officeholder will not succumb to the unlawful influences that are so prevalent in government at all levels.
As for the release of medical records, Americans have a right to know that the president is healthy enough to withstand the daily pressures of the job.
Lest anyone think that Trump’s refusal to make public his tax returns reflects a belief in privacy, consider his boastful announcement Monday when he filed his personal financial disclosure forms with the Federal Elections Commission.
“I am proud to say [it] is the largest in the history of the FEC,” he said.