Since his 2015–2016 campaign for president in the 2016 election, Donald Trump, who served as president from January 2017 to January 2021, has controversially refused to make his tax returns public. Trump repeatedly refused to release the details of his tax returns throughout his presidency, despite having pledged to do so during the campaign. After Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term elections, certain state officials and Congressional committees demanded access to Trump’s tax returns from the IRS or his accountants. Trump filed a lawsuit to block this access.
Trump had repeatedly and falsely claimed that he was unable to release the returns while the Internal Revenue Service was auditing them (IRS).
California passed legislation requiring presidential candidates to release tax returns in order to be allowed on the primary election ballot in response to Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. Later, the California Supreme Court determined that this law was unconstitutional under California law. A separate state law was adopted in New York, allowing the state tax authorities to provide state tax returns to congressional committees upon request for appropriate purposes.
Why is trump not revealing his tax returns?
Donald Trump has steadfastly refused to make his tax returns available to the public, despite Republican leaders urging him to do so in the name of transparency. He has frequently cited the fact that he cannot release his tax returns because he is the subject of an IRS audit as the main justification.
Numerous experts have argued that this claim is absurd and that there is nothing about the IRS audit procedure that would prevent Trump from disclosing his tax returns. And now, Donald Trump Jr., the candidate’s son, has acknowledged yet another factor keeping the returns from being made public instead he said:
“Because he’s got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from (his father’s) main message.”
Why Donald Trump’s Tax Returns must be released, according to even conservative Republicans?
Trump Jr. is making it abundantly clear that the Trump campaign does not want the American public and media to inquire about the Trump family’s finances and business dealings. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. The tax rate Trump pays is “none of your business,” he said in an interview with ABC News over the summer, adding that he works “very hard to pay as little tax as possible.” The American public isn’t particularly interested in tax returns, according to Trump, who has also claimed that there is “nothing to learn” from them.
However, polls show that 74% of voters overall and 62% of Republicans believe he should release them. The American public appears to be saying that the tax returns should just be made public if there is nothing to learn from them and nothing to hide.
While Donald Trump, Jr. didn’t specifically state that his father doesn’t want the public and media to view his father’s tax returns, it is clear that the Trump campaign doesn’t want anyone prying into their affairs. If there really is “nothing to learn” from them, it is unclear why this would be a distraction. Instead, analysts have suggested that the presidential candidate may not want the returns made public for a number of specific reasons, such as the possibility that he pays little to no taxes, that he has strong business ties to Russia, and/or that he is not nearly as wealthy as he claims.
Donald Trumps Tax Returns to be finally released!
Following a protracted legal battle, six years’ worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns may soon be made available to the public.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that the records must be provided to the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee, which will meet later on Tuesday afternoon to privately review returns for Trump, 76, and some of his businesses from 2013 to 2018.The information can then be included by committee members’ votes in a report to Congress that will be made public. Before the GOP takes over the House on January 3, Democrats are under pressure to expedite the release of the records.
After agreeing that the panel required them to assess the IRS’s required audits of presidents and vice presidents, the high court released the returns to the Ways and Means Committee. The House Ways and Means Committee, which is led by Democrats, will convene in private to examine tax returns from 2013 to 2018 for Trump and some of his businesses.
Trumps Tax Return’s Reports
In a new report released Tuesday night, the amount of income, deductions, and taxes paid by or reimbursed to former President Donald Trump while in the White House were specified.
According to the report, Trump declared having no income on his federal tax returns for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020. He also paid $1,500 in income taxes for the years 2016 and 2017.
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s staff report, Trump and his wife Melania claimed a $5.47 million refund on their 2020 income tax returns despite not paying any federal income taxes.
The report was made available online shortly after the Ways and Means Committee decided to release redacted versions of Trump’s complete 2015–2020 tax returns as well as those of eight related business entities.
These complete returns are anticipated to be made public soon.
The IRS only began an audit of one of Trump’s tax returns while he was president, despite an internal rule requiring that sitting presidents have their returns audited every year, according to a separate report made public by the Ways and Means Committee.
The highlights of Trump and Melania’s joint tax filings during the two years he first ran for president and during his time in office are broken down in the 39-page report by the Joint Committee on Taxation staff.
The report identifies different areas that the staff thought warranted further examination, such as documentation of nearly $506,000 in charitable donations claimed by the Trumps in 2019.
Highlights of the report include:
- On their 2015 federal return, Trump and his wife declared negative income of $31.7 million, with taxable income of $0. The couple paid federal income taxes of $641,931.
- The 2016 return declared negative income of $31.2 million, with zero dollars of taxable income. The Trumps paid $750 in taxes.
- The 2017 return declared negative income $12.8 million, with $0 in taxable income. The couple paid $750 in taxes.
- The 2018 return declared total income of $24.4 million, with taxable income of $22.9 million. The Trumps paid $999,466 in federal income taxes.
- In 2019, the Trumps declared $4.44 million in total income, and $2.97 million in taxable income. They paid $133,445 in taxes.
- The 2020 return shows negative income of $4.69 million, with zero dollars in taxable income. The tax paid by the Trumps was $0 and they claimed a refund of $5.47 million.