Donald Trump has refused to release his tax returns under the specious argument that he’s being audited, and the media seems to have gotten bored with the question and is letting him get away with it. Trump himself has claimed that only a few media elite care about the tax returns and it’s not an issue for voters, even though 62% of Republicans say he should release them.
But back in January of 2012, he criticized Mitt Romney over not returning his tax returns earlier, saying they should have been released by the beginning of April 2011 — before the primaries.
This is absolutely a big deal, and we cannot let it go. There needs to be a cacophony of voices urging for Trump to release multiple years of his tax returns.
- Voters have compelling reasons for wanting to see candidates’ tax returns.
- There are decades of historical precedent for all major party nominees to release their tax returns.
- Trump’s alleged audit is no excuse for not releasing his returns.
- The FEC’s mandated disclosures are too limited and are insufficient. Voters need the information that only tax returns provide.
- Trump is clearly trying to hide something that voters should demand to see before the election.
- Voters deserve to be able to see what sorts of tax deductions and tax shelters their candidates use.
- Trump’s tax returns may help shed additional light on potential conflicts of interest undetected in his FEC disclosures.
- His tax returns may show whether or not Trump is lying about his wealth or his charitable donations.
- They may show whether he’s committed fraud or engaged in other unethical dealings.
- His tax returns may show whether he’s engaged in domestic or international criminal activities or done business with known criminals.
- We must make sure that becomes such a big issue that it becomes an absolutely disqualifying event for any presidential candidate to refuse to disclose multiple years of their tax returns.
- Below the fold, I’ll break down the issues and then go into an action plan for how people can help keep this issue on the front burner for the remaining 61 days of the campaign – or until Trump releases several years of his returns, whichever comes first.
The Issues
Voters have compelling reasons for wanting to see presidential candidates’ tax returns.
- Tax returns helps paint a more complete picture of the candidate’s financial dealings.
- They provide a sense of their debts and potential conflicts of interest.
- The give voters a sense of the candidate’s values and priorities through not only how much they give to charity but also which charities they donate to.
- The tax returns help fills in gaps that other mandatory FEC financial disclosure documents do not disclose.
- Candidates’ tax returns have produced interesting revelations about candidates, including that Richard Nixon took an unusual amount of legal deductions, George H. W. Bush donated 62% of his income to charity, the Clintons were telling the truth about the Whitewater deal, the Obamas had donated $27,500 to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church in 2005 and 2006, and that Mitt Romney’s IRA was worth between $20.7 to $101.6 million despite an annual contribution cap of $30,000.
There are decades of historical precedent for all major party nominees to disclose their tax returns.
- Every president elected since Harry S Truman has released tax returns (and Franklin Roosevelt’s were release posthumously), though Gerald Ford – who was never elected – only released summary data, and Nixon’s were released after he won re-election.
- Every Vice President since 2000 has released their tax returns.
- Every Republican nominee in the last 40 years has released at least summary data, and every nominee for the last 36 years has released at least two years of tax returns (except Reagan, who released only one year before he was first elected), and most have released at least five years of tax returns. Bob Dole released thirty years of his returns.
- Mitt Romney, who was greatly criticized for initially failing to release his returns during the 2012 campaign, eventually released his 2010 return and a summary of his 2011 return. Even for that, Romney generated more than twice as much negative press about the delayed release of his tax returns than Trump has.
- Of the 2016 candidates, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, and Bernie Sanders all released their 2014 returns. Clinton and her running-mate, Tim Kaine, have now released their 2015 tax returns, and Green candidate Jill Stein posted the first two pages of her 2015 taxes without the important Schedule A summary of deductions. Neither Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson nor independent candidate Evan McMullin have released their own tax returns.
- Hillary Clinton has 23 years of her tax returns available online (some listed here under Bill Clinton but filed jointly) from the years 1992 through 2014, and has released tax returns going back to 1977. Her running-mate, Tim Kaine, has released ten years of his tax returns.
Trump’s alleged audit is no excuse for not releasing his current taxes, much less older taxes not under audit.
- Trump claims he can’t release his returns because he’s being audited (allegedly for the last four years). It’s a specious claim.
- Of course, the IRS cannot even legally confirm or deny whether he’s even being audited. They have said that it would be very rare for someone to be audited multiple years in a row as Trump has claimed unless there are unusual circumstances. But they have said there’s no legal impediment to releasing his returns during an audit.
- Some tax accountants have said that it may even be better for him to release his returns during an audit because (a) if the public combing through them finds an error before the IRS does, he can file a correction without a fine, and (b) one of the concerns about releasing returns is that irregularities could trigger an audit, which is a moot point if they are already under audit.
- President Richard Nixon released his tax returns while being audited.
- Trump has turned over his tax returns while under audit to gambling regulators in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
- Even if he’s afraid to release the returns under audit, he could release older returns that aren’t being audited, as Mitt Romney himself has suggested. Hillary Clinton has released more than thirty-eight years of her returns. Trump could match that by also releasing any returns dating back to 1992, or even just 2000, that are not currently under audit. For the years that are currently being audited, he could release the first two pages of his Form 1040 along with his Schedule A deductions without any risk to any current or future audit according to Fred Greenberg, a former IRS commissioner who was appointed to IRS chief counsel by Reagan, and then IRS commissioner, among other positions, under George H. W. Bush.
- If he’s claiming to be audited for returns older than three years, it’s possibly either a lie or a personal choice for political convenience unless he did something really wrong, since the IRS’ statute of limitations for audits is three years, which can be doubled if a substantial error has been found, and is unlimited if the IRS meets a very high burden of showing actual tax fraud. Either Trump is lying about the audit covering those years, or he voluntarily chose to waive the statute of limitations, or there have been some significant improprieties that could be as serious as criminal tax fraud.
- Trump’s claim that he won’t release any returns until his audit is over essentially means he won’t release them, since he has great control over how long the audit takes. He can easily drag it out past November.
The FEC’s mandated disclosures alone are too limited. Voters deserve the information that only tax returns provide.
- Trump has complied with the Federal Election Commission’s disclosure requirements, but they don’t provide sufficient information for voters (despite Trump’s claim that they reveal far more than his taxes would, which PolitiFact ruled False).
- The FEC’s financial disclosure forms do not provide a complete picture and must be used with the candidate’s tax returns to inform how the candidate makes financial decisions.
- The values of assets are reported on FEC disclosure reports in ranges, and the ranges are so broad that they aren’t useful for wealthy candidates. Although Trump claims to be worth $10 billion, that cannot be verified through his FEC disclosures because the way his assets are listed can only simply show that he’s worth at least $1.4 billion with liabilities of at least $265 million, but the lack of an upper range limit make it impossible to verify his claims through the disclosure forms alone.
- There are other gaps in FEC disclosure reports that tax returns can illuminate. For example, candidates also do not have to disclose the value of their homes, cars, or retirement plans on FEC disclosures, and presidential candidates are exempt from Congressional rules around disclosing stock transactions within 45 days and disclosing who holds their mortgages.
- FEC disclosures also do not provide information about a candidate’s charitable contributions, investment strategies, and foreign holdings.
Donald Trump may have tax deductions that voters deserve to scrutinize.
- Documents filed with New Jersey’s gambling commission show that Trump paid no taxes at all for at least two years in the 1990s, and no federal taxes for at least two years in the 1970s. Many wealthy people have been criticized for having a lower effective tax rate than their lowest-level employees.
- Other political candidates have previously been criticized for taking advantage of shady but legal off-shore tax shelters and similar tax loopholes meant to shield their wealth from taxation. Trump’s tax returns could reveal whether or not he takes advantage of tax dodges that some might consider are “un-American.”
- Even if he has taken advantage of these deductions, this is unlikely to be the sole issue holding him back since Trump has already boasted that he takes advantage of every available tax exemption and has spun it by saying that he wants to make it easier for other taxpayers to keep their income, too.
His tax returns may help shed additional light on potential conflicts of interest.
- Trump’s FEC financial disclosures reveal that he is affiliated with 515 separate business entities as a member, president, chairman, trustee, or other designation. This provides an unprecedented level of complication and conflicts of interest that no other presidential candidate has ever faced before. While his FEC disclosures help reveal some of these, his tax returns would provide critical corroboration and insight into other potential conflicts of interests, including greater insights into his debts.
- Because Wall Street companies that once did business with Trump in the 1980s now refuse to work with him, Deutsch Bank AG has now become his biggest known financial backer, lending Trump’s companies over $2.6 billion since 1998. This poses a huge potential conflict of interest for a potential future President, since Deutsch Bank is already under fire from U.S. regulators for trying to evade U.S. laws around risky financial practices for which it has paid billions in fines.
- His taxes may help us understand whether there are other foreign investors to which he is indebted to that could present conflicts of interest.
- Other deductions that he take could inform where he might have a conflict of interest in considering tax policy changes.
Is Trump lying about his wealth or his charitable donations?
- Trump has a history of telling outright lies, such as lying about how the investigators he supposedly sent to Hawaii to look for Obama’s birth certificate “cannot believe that they’re finding,” flat-out confirming to Meredith Viera that investigators were already in Hawaii, despite there later being no evidence that any investigators were ever even sent. Politico found that in his speeches, Trump lies on average once every five minutes, and the Huffington Post catalogued 71 lies in just one town hall event. In one famous whopper, he claimed to have gotten to know Russian President Vladimir Putin “very well because we were both on 60 Minutes … We were stablemates, and we did very well that night.” In fact, they not only weren’t in the same green room, they were in separate countries: Putin was interviewed in Moscow while Trump was interviewed in New York.
- His entire campaign is based on his claims of being a successful and wealthy billionaire businessman. Trump’s tax returns are the only way to document whether he’s telling the truth about his only claims of accomplishment and his actual net worth.
- But is he as wealthy as he claims? Forbes has estimated Trump’s net worth to be around $4.5 billion based largely on Trump’s own claims, though Trump himself claims to be worth $10 billion. Fortune estimates his wealth is no more than $3.3 billion, generously estimating it at 20 times his earnings, and more likely considerably less. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts it even lower at $3 billion. In a deposition for a lawsuit Trump filed against a journalist who claimed Trump was “only” worth about $150 to $250 million, Trump admitted that a large part of his valuation was his self-appraised value of the brand of his name. (The lawsuit was dismissed.)
- Trump’s self-appraised valuations seem to fluctuate dramatically depending who he’s talking to. If he’s talking to Forbes, or filling out his FEC disclosure forms, he claims to be worth $10 billion. For example, his FEC forms claimed the Trump National Golf Club Jupiter was worth more than $50 million, but when the tax bill arrived, he claimed it was worth no more than $5 million. These discrepancies were unearthed only because property tax assessments are public documents in Florida. Lies about other issues on his personal taxes would be easier to hide.
- Normally, dissecting the candidate’s exact wealth would seem rather petty except that without any political accomplishments, Trump’s entire campaign is based on his ethos of claiming to be rich and successful. Trump’s tax returns would help confirm or refute how wealthy he is, how much in debt he’s in, and to whom, and whether or not he’s lying.
- Has he lied about his charitable contributions? Trump has made outlandish boasts about his philanthropic generosity, claiming to have donated over $100 million to charity over the last half a decade alone, but these claims appear to be lies. A TSG review of Trump’s own charitable foundation has found that Trump has personally only donated $3.7 million to the foundation since 1990, which would average under $150,000 a year, making him one of the least philanthropic billionaires on the planet. He claims that his charitable donations have been done separately outside of his foundation, but these can’t be substantiated without his tax returns. Of 167 charities which Trump pledged donations to since 2008, the Washington Post tracked down only a single donation of under $10,000. Trump’s tax returns would prove whether or not he’s lying about his charitable donations.
His tax returns may show whether or not he’s committed fraud or engaged in other unethical dealings.
- Has Trump continued to file for a middle class tax exemption called STAR available only to New York homeowners who make less than $500,000 a year? He claimed that previous exemptions were in error, despite having to affirmatively apply for them and then getting it again after refunding one that he was called out on. That a “billionaire” would lie for such a small exemption reveals a lot about his character. His tax returns would reveal whether he continued to apply for the exemption, and for how long. Unless his actual income is less than $500,000 a year?
- Did Trump receive $150,000 in small business claims for 9/11 relief after admitting that he didn’t personally incur any losses? Snopes investigated and found the claims were not illegal, but it raises the question of whether there are illegal or unethical dealings buried in his tax returns that he’s trying to hide from voters.
His tax returns might reveal if he’s engaged in domestic or international criminal activity.
- Conservative columnist George Will has speculated that Trump’s taxes may reveal ties to Russian oligarchs. Though Trump claims to not have any investments in Russia, the real question has always been whether Russia is investing in Trump, and the degree to which a potential future president is indebted to a hostile foreign power.
- Others, including Mitt Romney, have speculated that Trump’s taxes could reveal close ties to the mafia and organized crime. Trump’s ties to mobsters have been well-documented, including hiring them to build Trump Tower and Trump Plaza, suspicious options to purchase Penn Central railroad yards on the West Side of Manhattan that resulted in a Grand Jury investigation, payoffs to New Jersey mobsters to acquire land for a parking lot, and much more. The ties have been confirmed by Politifact. And this just isn’t old news: Russian-born mafia-linked businessman Felix Sater, who also has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a private, confidential meeting with Donald Trump in Trump Tower in July 2016 and then promptly donated $5,520 to Trump’s presidential campaign ($120 of which had to be refunded for exceeding maximum contribution limits). Trump has claimed he’s never met Sater and doesn’t even know what he looks like, but Sater had worked extensively with Trump and Trump’s children on a number of projects, including a failed plan to build Trump Towers in Moscow and elsewhere in former Soviet countries.
- Will Trump’s tax returns reveal those ties? Who knows? He may have been able to bury some of his most nefarious connections, but his taxes might help illuminate his business dealings, and there’s something he’s hiding. Maybe this is it.
Refusing has to be a disqualifying event.
- If Trump is seen as getting away with refusing to disclose his tax returns, it sets a horrible precedent for opacity and concealing conflicts of interest for future candidates.
- He needs to be asked about it by reporters every single day. There need to be editorials and letters to the editor in every paper in the country, even conservative papers.
- The presidential debate moderators of every debate should continue to ask him about this so long as he continues to refuse to release his taxes.
- Even many Republicans are calling on him to disclose: 2012 GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee; Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI); Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC); GOP consultant and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone; and 62% of Republican voters.
- Refusing to disclose should be framed as a disqualifier, and if he refuses up through the election, he needs to lose by a landslide so that there cannot be a perception that he was given a pass about it. All future candidates of every party need to understand that this has been a standard level of conflicts-of-interest disclosure in American politics for generations and needs to be preserved.
- Ultimately, if he refuses to disclose his taxes, we may have to consider passing Sen. Ron Wyden’s Presidential Tax Transparency Act that would require presidential candidates to release the most recent three years of their taxes with 15 days after their party’s nominating conventions and allow the Secretary of the Treasury to release their returns if the candidate refuses. (My concern, though, is that voters should be able to see the candidates’ tax returns before they vote in the primaries so that they are not stuck with a candidate after it’s too late that is suddenly is revealed to have disqualifying information in their taxes. Perhaps the tax disclosure could be included as part of the FEC financial disclosure timeline?)
- Don’t let others derail the debate by demanding disclosure of other unrelated issues. Clinton has already released more legitimate information about her health than Trump has about his, and there’s no precedent for releasing speech transcripts, which no one has demanded of Trump or any other candidate this year or any other year. Releasing Trump’s tax returns is imperative and the only unmet precedent here, and must be done before we discuss releasing any other documents that have no historical precedent.
- Yes, it is also imperative that Gary Johnson release his tax returns, as must Evan McMullin. And Jill Stein should provide the Schedule A for her 2015 returns, and ideally should provide additional years to show a more complete picture. But their chances of winning even a single state, much less the White House, are vanishingly remote, and the media should not allow Donald Trump or his partisans to use third party candidates’ shortcomings as an excuse for his own.
Action Plan
- Bombard every newspaper you can find with letters to the editor about insisting that Trump release his taxes, and urge them to editorialize demanding it. Trump claims that the voters don’t care about his taxes even though 62% of Republican voters think it’s somewhat or very important for presidential candidates to release their returns. We need to show that’s not true.
- Email or Tweet the journalists who’ve been picked to moderate the presidential debates and urge them to ask Trump about his taxes in every debate until he actually releases them. They include:
- September 26: Lester Holt (NBC)
- October 9: Martha Raddatz (ABC) and Anderson Cooper (CNN)
- October 19: Chris Wallace (Fox News)
- Use these bulleted talking points above to refute lies and misinformation on social media when you see them.
- Take any your favorite bulleted talking points with the sourced article. Post the article on Facebook or Twitter and used the talking point to comment about the article.
- If you post about Trump’s taxes on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media that uses hashtags, use the #TrumpTaxes hashtag, the most commonly-used hashtag associated with Donald Trump’s taxes. If we all use the same hashtag consistently, that will help get it trending.
- Get your friends to also take these same actions. There needs to be a loud, daily public demand for him to release his taxes.
- Other strategies? Please share them in the comments.
Sample Letters
Here are some sample letters and blurbs. Please customize, swapping out any of the details from the facts above so they’re all unique. And adjust as needed depending who your target is (e.g., a letter to the editor, a moderator of a presidential debate, an acquaintance on Facebook, etc.).
You may want to tweak the emphasis depending on the paper’s readership. If it’s a conservative paper, you may want to talk about the precedent, the Republican presidents who’ve released theirs, the criticism from other Republicans, or the reasons why voters in general want to see candidates’ tax returns. If you live in an area associated with one of the Republicans who’ve criticized Trump about his taxes (like Mitt Romney (UT), Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (UT), Rep. Sean Duffy (WI), Rep. Mark Sanford (SC)) and it’s a paper whose readership is favorable to those Republicans, bring up that specific person’s comments. Be sure to refute Trump’s claim that he can’t release them because he’s under audit, as that’s the excuse that many of them are hearing.
If it’s a paper with a more liberal readership, especially the alternative press, feel free to add more about what Trump may be hiding or what he’s afraid his taxes will reveal.
Longer Letter
Dear Editor,
Donald Trump refuses to release his tax returns despite the fact that 62% of Republicans think he should. Refusing to do so sets a horrible precedent and I hope for our democracy’s sake that you will editorialize loudly and strongly that he release them.
Every major party presidential candidate for decades has released their tax returns. Hillary Clinton has released hers going back to the 1970s. Doing so fills in critical gaps not covered by FEC disclosure documents. We get a more complete sense of candidate’s financial dealings, their potential conflicts of interest, and their values and priorities through their charitable donations.
He claims that he can’t because he’s being audited, but even the IRS says that’s not true. Nixon released his under audit. Former IRS commissioner Fred Goldberg said he could release his first two pages and his Schedule A for his audited years, plus full returns for older years not under audit.
It sure sounds like Trump is hiding something. Maybe it’s that his deductions are so low, he’s paid little or no taxes. Maybe he’s actually lying about how wealthy he is, or that he hasn’t made the charitable donations he claims to make. Maybe they’ll show he’s engaged in fraud or unethical dealings, or as many have speculated, is doing business with mobsters or Russian oligarchs.
Or maybe I’m wrong. But unless Trump releases his tax returns, it’s natural to speculate why and assume the worst.
A presidential candidate’s tax returns are always important, but critically so for someone who doesn’t have a political background to run on. We can’t look at the legislation he’s introduced, voted on, signed, or vetoed to see a track record beyond the rhetoric. His campaign is based on his claimed success as a businessman, but we can’t know whether he’s telling the truth about that, or whether he’s in debt up to his eyeballs, or what conflicts of interest he has, unless he releases his tax returns.
I implore the [Name of Newspaper] to editorialize about this so that future candidates don’t see that this is a precedent that can be blithely flouted.
Regards,
Your Name City
[some also require phone numbers – look at your paper’s submission guidelines]
Medium Letter
Dear Editor,
Every major party presidential candidate for decades has released their tax returns — except Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has released hers going back to the 1970s. The IRS has said he can release returns even if he’s being audited, as Nixon did, and he can also release older returns not under audit.
Voters deserve to see these returns in order to understand their financial dealings, conflicts of interest, and values and priorities through charitable donations.
This is important for any candidate, but particularly one with no political background whose sole claim to fame is his success as a businessman. Is he as wealthy as he claims? Did he lie about his charitable donations? Is he hiding dealings with the mob or Russian oligarchs? Has he taken fraudulent deductions, or so many that he pays zero in taxes? What is he hiding?
We cannot let future presidential candidates think that voters don’t care about their tax returns.
Regards,
Your Name City
[some also require phone numbers – look at your paper’s submission guidelines]
Short Blurb 1
Donald Trump thinks that voters don’t care about his taxes, but that’s not true. Candidates’ tax returns show us a better picture of their financial dealings, their conflicts of interests, and their charitable priorities. Even 62% of Republicans want him to release his tax returns.
Short Blurb 2
Donald Trump calls her “Crooked Hillary,” but she’s released 38 YEARS of her tax returns and he’s released ZERO. What is he hiding? Mafia ties? Indebtedness to Russian oligarchs? Didn’t pay taxes? Not really a billionaire?
140 Character Tweet to Anderson Cooper
. @Andersoncooper Please ask Trump at the 10/9 debate about his tax returns. They fill in gaps that FEC disclosures miss. #TrumpTaxes
Note: I chose Anderson Cooper because his Twitter handle was the longest, so the same Tweet will work with the others. If you want your Tweets to be seen by people who don’t follow you, start it with a period.
140 Character Tweet
In 2012, @realDonaldTrump criticized Romney for not releasing his taxes faster. Now he won’t release his at all even though the IRS says it’s fine. #TrumpTaxes
Sources
Becker, Bernie and Brian Faler, “IRS Chief: ‘Rare’ For a Taxpayer to Be Audited Several Years in a Row, As Trump Claims,” Politico, February 26, 2016.
Bedenko, Alan, “Donald Trump: STAR Exemption and Tax Returns,” DailyPublic.com, July 29, 2016.
Benen, Steve, “Trump Surrogate Defends Secrecy on Tax Returns,” MSNBC, August 25, 2016.
Berenson, Tessa, “5 Interesting Things We Learned From Presidential Tax Returns,” Time, May 11, 2016.
Berrein, Hank, “Lyin’ Donald: 101 of Trump’s Greatest Lies,” The Daily Wire, April 11, 2016.
Borchers, Callum, “Unpacking Donald Trump’s History With This Fall’s Debate Moderators,” The Washington Post, September 5, 2016.
Campbell, Jon, “Donald Trump Gets Middle-Class Tax Relief, Again,” LOHUD.com, June 7, 2016.
Campbell, Jon, “Donald Trump to Pay Back STAR Exemption,” LOHUD.com, June 20, 2016.
Carroll, Lauren, “Most GOP Nominees Since 1970s Have Released Their Tax Returns, Fox’s Chris Wallace Says,” Politifact, May 18, 2016.
Chason, Rachel, “GOP Congressman: Trump Should Release Taxes,” CNN, August 8, 2016.
Choma, Russ and David Corn, “Trump Has a Conflict-of-Interest Problem No Other White House Candidate Ever Had,” Mother Jones, June 1, 2016.
Cillizza, Chris, “6 Theories for Why Donald Trump Won’t Release His Tax Returns,” The Washington Post, July 27, 2016.
“Clinton Holds Lead Amid Record High Dislike of Both Nominees,” Monmouth University Polling Institute, August 29, 2016.
Das, Anupreeta, “When Donald Trump Needs a Loan, He Chooses Deutsche Bank,” The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2016.
Easley, Jason, “Trump Admits He Will Lose the Election If He Releases His Tax Returns,” Politics USA, July 31, 2016.
Editorial Board, “Donald Trump’s Bet: We Are All Chumps,” The Washington Post, September 4, 2016.
Eichenwald, Kurt, “Donald Trump’s Many Business Failures, Explained,” Newsweek, August 2, 2016.
Erb, Kelly Phillips, “Senate Bill Would Require Presidential Candidates, Including Trump, To Release Tax Returns,” Forbes, May 25, 2016.
Fahrenthold, David A. and Danielle Rindler, “Searching For Evidence of Trump’s Personal Giving,” The Washington Post, August 18, 2016.
Fahrenthold, David A., “Trump Promised Millions to Charity. We Found Less Than $10,000 Over 7 Years,” The Washington Post,” June 28, 2016.
Gass, Nick, “Trump: ‘People Don’t Care’ About My Tax Returns,” Politico, September 6, 2016.
Goins-Phillips, Tré, “Fact Check: Was Donald Trump Actually ‘Stablemates’ With Vladimir Putin on ’60 Minutes’?” The Blaze, November 10, 2015.
Goldberg, Fred, “Trump Has No Excuse To Not Release His Tax Returns,” CNBC, August 23, 2016.
Goldmacher, Shane, “Trump Appears to Have Paid No Taxes For Two Years in Early 1990s,” Politico, June 17, 2016. www.politico.com/...
Harwell, Drew, “Trump Claims His Golf Courses Are Worth Tens of Millions. Until the Tax Bill Arrives,” The Washington Post, August 21, 2016.
Harwell, Drew, “Trump Once Revealed His Income Tax Returns. They Show He Didn’t Pay a Cent,” The Washington Post, May 21, 2016.
Helderman, Rosalind S. and Tom Hamburger, “Former Mafia-Linked Figure Describes Association with Trump,” The Washington Post, May 17, 2016.
Hurdle, Jon, “Judge Throws Out Trump Lawsuit Over His Net Worth,” Reuters, July 15, 2009.
“IRS Audit FAQs,” Internal Revenue Service, updated May 20, 2016.
Jacobson, Louis, “Donald Trump Says His Financial Disclosures More Than Make Up For Lack of Releasing His Tax Returns,” PolitiFact, September 7, 2016.
Javers, Eamon, “Inside Trump’s Finances: Read the Full FEC Report,” CNBC, July 22, 2015.
Johnston, David Cay, “Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?” Politico, May 22, 2016.
Joseph, Cameron, “Donald Trump Took Advantage of Program Designed to Help Small Businesses After 9/11 – One of Many Times He’s Used Public Funds for Private Gain,” New York Daily News, May 18, 2016.
LaCapria, Kim, “Trump Unf-Air,” Snopes.com, May 26, 2016.
Lane, Randall, “Inside The Epic Fantasy That's Driven Donald Trump For 33 Years,” Forbes, September 29, 2015.
Legum, Judd, “Trump is Getting a Free Pass on His Tax Returns. These Numbers Prove It,” ThinkProgress, July 29, 2016.
LOLGOP, “Show Us Your Taxes or Pay for Your Own Secret Service Protection,” EclectaBlog, August 6, 2016.
Massie, Christopher, “Roger Stone: Trump ‘Should Release His Tax Returns Immediately,” BuzzFeed, August 22, 2016.
McCaskill, Nolan, “GOP Rep. Sanford: Trump’s Refusal to Release Tax Returns Will Damage Transparency,” Politico, August 15, 2016.
Melby, Caleb, “Trump Is Richer in Property and Deeper in Debt in New Valuation,” Chicago Tribune, July 19, 2016.
Neely, Brett, “Mitt Romney: Trump’s Decision to Not Release His Tax Returns Is ‘Disqualifying,’” NPR, May 11, 2016.
Nesbet, Jeff, “Donald Trump’s Many, Many, Many, Many Ties to Russia,” Time, August 15, 2016.
Parker, Ashley and Steve Eder, “Inside the Six Weeks Donald Trump Was a ‘Birther,’” New York Times, July 2, 2016.
Peterson-Withorn, Chase, “How Donald Trump Exaggerates and Fibs About His $4.5 Billion Net Worth,” Forbes, March 31, 2016.
“Presidential Tax Returns,” Tax History Project, accessed September 6, 2016.
Qiu, Linda, “Yes, Donald Trump Has Been Linked to the Mob,” Politifact, March 2, 2016.
Reisman, Sam, “Remember When Trump Said That Romney Should Release His Taxes?” Mediaite, May 11, 2016.
Robertson, Lori and Robert Farley, “Trump’s Tax Returns,” FactCheck.org, May 12, 2016.
Romney, Mitt, status update on Facebook, May 11, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
Rubin, Richard, “What a Presidential Candidate’s Financial Disclosures Do, and Do Not, Reveal,” BloombergPolitics, May 15, 2015.
Sahidi, Jeanne, “Nixon Released His Tax Returns Under Audit. Why Can’t Trump?” CNN Money, May 11, 2016.
Schreckinger, Ben, “Trump’s Mob-Linked Ex-Associate Gives $5,400 to Campaign,” Politico, August 26, 2016.
Seelye, Katharine Q., “Dole Releases His Tax Returns And Aims Challenge at Forbes,” New York Times, January 20, 1996.
“Trump to GOP: Stop Playing Into President Obama's Hands,” Fox News (transcript), January 18, 2012.
Tully, Shawn, “Why Donald Trump’s Tax Returns May Prove He’s Not That Rich,” Fortune, March 2, 2016.
Wood, Robert W., “How Long Can the IRS Audit? It All Depends on You,” Forbes, April 3, 2014.
Yeager, Melissa and Richard Skinner, “Why Is the Tax Return a Big Deal and What Information Can You Learn From It?” Sunlight Foundation, July 27, 2016.
Zarroli, Jim, “Fact-Check: Donald Trump Can’t Release His Taxes While Being Audited?” NPR, February 26, 2016.