6 Theories for Why Donald Trump Won’t Release his Tax Returns

[Hissyspit]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/26/inside-the-5-theories-for-why-donald-trump-isnt-releasing-his-tax-returns/

6 theories for why Donald Trump won’t release his tax returns

By Chris Cillizza The FixJuly 26 at 2:25 PM

- snip -

1. He has Russian ties. (See above.)


2. He is being audited. I mean, maybe. Trump could, of course, release his tax returns even while he is under an audit. Richard Nixon did it in 1973.

3. He did not pay any taxes. The scant evidence we have on Trump's approach to taxation gives this theory credence. A 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators showed that Trump did not pay any taxes at all for two years in the 1970s. How? Because as a developer he was able to report negative income. (Here's a good explanation of how he could do that.)

REST AT LINK

[ansible]

1. Getting the IRS involved would definitely be the best way to wreck Trump

Wouldn't be surprised if he's lying and isn't even a billionaire at all

[Wounded Bear]

3. Sorry, but I don't think so...

The Trumplodytes would call it government overreach, and Obama trying to influence the election.

It's almost better out there for something to continue being asked at every opportunity.

[napkinz]

2. ...

[Warpy]

4. Since the IRS has a policy of auditing only the poor and lower middle class

I think we can pretty safely assume there's no audit.

I do think it's a combination of all of the above.

[former9thward]

8. Nice CT

the IRS does not have a policy of auditing only the poor and lower middle class. The audit rates for those groups is extremely low. Why? There is no money in it. The do audit wealthy people all the time. Sorry to burst your bubble.



Trump is under audit.

[Mendocino]

5. I've used up my free WAPO articles

for the month. Could anyone give me a brief synopsis of 4-6 ? Thank you.

I do have a few theories of my own on his non-disclosure, all tied to paying no or low taxes. One is that he simply isn't as wealthy as he projects. Another is that disclosure would show all the convoluted offshore schemes and loopholes that he uses. Sending his money to foreign accounts would really undercut his "Buy America BS". Another is that his purported charitable gifts will be shown to be very low or non-existent. Wouldn't look good to claim he supported, say a veterans organization when he didn't.

[Jim Lane]

10. Here they are, paraphrased to ensure there's no copyvio

4. Possible links to organized crime; 5. Skimpiness of charitable donations; 6. Lower net worth than he publicly asserts.

I'm dubious about Cillizza's numbers 1 (Russia) and 4 (the mob). It's unlikely to me that the returns would show any such thing. Would Trump report bribes received as income, or bribes paid as an expense? Well, the latter is possible, but the money would be laundered through the padding of other expenses.

I also doubt number 6 because, here again, tax returns aren't as comprehensively informative as some people seem to assume. If a big chunk of Trump's personal net worth is in the form of stock in closely held corporations that aren't publicly traded and aren't Subchapter S corporations, then he wouldn't have reportable income from them except to the extent that he chose to have them pay dividends (or if he sold or exchanged some of the stock). In the extreme case, he could have stock with a fair market value of $10 billion but show no income from it. I doubt that the truth is that extreme, but there's enough possibility there that the returns wouldn't conclusively disprove his self-reported net worth.

I don't see how the audit is relevant. The IRS obviously has all the information that's in the returns, and then some. I'm going with low charitable donations and, especially, low (possibly even zero) taxes paid, given the many ways that rich people, especially rich real estate developers, can avoid taxes.

[Mendocino]

11. Thank you.

His wealth, whatever it may be, is so paramount to his psyche that any questions about it are a personal attack. His money and the image of having money and the implied power it represents are all he has.

[kairos12]

6. Unfortunatey, the MSM will not hold him accountable.

[EL34x4]

7. I have one theory.

The only people who care about Donald Trump's tax returns have no intention of voting for him whether he releases them or not.

[Bucky]

9. 5 is certainly true, but we know this already. My guess is it's reasons #3 and #6

He's a classic tax dodger and he's a confidence man to the bone--meaning he's almost certainly lying about his wealth.