Tag Archives: IRS

business news

Trump says ‘voters don’t care’ about tax returns; wrong!

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What do you mean, Mr. President, that “voters didn’t care” about your tax returns?

I am a voter! I surely do care about your tax returns!

I believe, sir, I have a right to see them, along with millions of other Americans. Why am I insisting on seeing them? I’ll tell you why.

You said during the 2016 presidential campaign that you would release them. Then you reneged.

You kept bragging about what a brilliant businessman you were prior to running for president. Now we hear that you weren’t what you said you were, with all those losses for a decade prior to 1994.

As president, you are responsible for helping assess tax burdens on all Americans. Yes, you propose tax rates, but Congress disposes of them. Still, we need to know whether you are paying the same “fair share” you are demanding of the rest of us.

Finally, previous presidents and candidates for president have released their returns. They aren’t legally bound to do it. It’s customary. It’s tradition.

So, Mr. President, do not put words in my mouth. Besides, you are too shameless a liar whose own words cannot be trusted in any shape or form.

I care a lot about seeing those tax returns.

Turn ’em over!

national news

Trump’s tax returns: the gift that keeps on giving

We need to see Donald John Trump’s tax returns. There can be no doubt about that.

Is the president legally obligated to provide them? No. He certainly is not. However, political tradition dating back more than four decades has resulted in presidents and candidates for president to allow the public full access to their personal financial condition.

Trump, though, keeps changing his tune. He once said he would release them once the Internal Revenue Service completed an audit; then he backed away from that pledge; now he is resisting efforts from Congress to obtain them in accordance with the law.

Why is this important?

He campaigned for president on the basis of the fabulous wealth he said he accrued. Trump kept boasting about how he is “really rich.” Now we hear from The New York Times that the real estate mogul lost more than a billion bucks for a decade ending in 1994, which seems to belie Trump’s assertion of his business brilliance.

More to the point, though, are the questions that continue to lurk out there regarding his business dealings with Russia. He said he does not do business with Russians. Those who are close to Trump say otherwise. Who’s telling the truth?

And, yes, the Russia issue is pertinent because of all those questions about the Russian involvement/interference in our 2016 presidential election.

Trump has thumbed his nose at countless political norms since announcing his presidential candidacy. One of them has been to withhold his tax returns from public view. There must be some reasons that Trump won’t reveal them: He isn’t as rich as he says he is; he gives next to nothing to charity; he doesn’t pay his share of federal taxes; he has extensive business dealings with those nasty Russians.

And yet, the president keeps insisting that there’s nothing to see. It’s time to move on.

Well, if there’s nothing to see, why doesn’t Trump just let us make that call for ourselves?

I believe there is plenty to see. That likely explains everything about what Trump is hiding from public view.

business news

Trump does a One-Eighty on tax returns

I guess I was asleep when this occurred.

Donald J. Trump used to proclaim that he would release his tax returns for public review as soon as the Internal Revenue Service finished its “routine audit.” He said that, yes?

Now he says something quite different. He now is declaring that he won’t release his tax returns under any circumstance.

Huh? What happened? When did the president change his tune?

He has declared all along he had nothing to hide. No business dealings with Russia. No tax dodge. Nothing improper, let alone illegal.

So when is he going to let the public see the returns of the man who helps shape national tax policy, who is partly responsible for the requiring the rest of us to pay our fair share of taxes? It’s only fair, I believe, to demand that we see whether the Big Man pays his fair share, too.

Is that unreasonable? I don’t believe it is.

business news, economic news

Will keep harping about tax returns … until we see ’em

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It boils down to a simple proposition.

Donald Trump cannot be trusted to tell us the truth about anything. Nothing. Not a single thing he says is to be believed.

Thus, when he says that he cannot release his taxes for public examination because the Internal Revenue Service is “auditing” his returns, I do not believe him.

The president of the United States is a pathological liar. He cannot tell us the truth about any issue, at any level.

I had hoped special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into The Russia Thing might reveal the president’s tax returns. It looks as though it won’t. I continue to hope that Congress’s demands that the IRS release will enable them will force the agency’s hand.

Trump keeps telling us there’s nothing to hide. Yet he does hide them from us. He snubs political tradition dating back more than four decades. Every presidential candidate since 1976 has revealed his or her income. Trump refuses.

He is not to be believed. I suspect the audit is a ruse. This individual is deliberately keeping something from the public’s scrutiny.

Why is this important? Let’s set aside the noise about potential Russian influence on Trump’s business dealings.

Presidents are involved in helping establish tax policy for all Americans to follow. Congress enacts the laws, to be sure. Presidents, though, make them law with his signature. Therefore, Americans have every right to know whether the president of the United States is paying his fair share of taxes and doing what he and Congress demand of the rest of us.

That is notwithstanding all the other issues that continue to swirl around the president.

So when this individual tells us he has “no business dealings with Russia,” and that the IRS is “conducting a routine audit,” and that he is worth gazillions of dollars that he earned the hard way, he expects you and me to believe him.

I do not believe a single word that flies out of this guy’s mouth.

Thus, the president needs to produce the goods.

I will keep harping on it until he does.

business news, national news

Tax returns? Give ’em up, Mr. POTUS

U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has the law on his side, or so it would appear.

The Massachusetts Democrat is using his power as a congressional committee chairman to get his hands on Donald Trump’s tax returns. He is citing a statute that requires the Internal Revenue Service to hand over any request that comes from Congress.

The president’s lawyers say the chairman is overstepping his bounds.

C’mon. Let’s settle this thing.

Turn them over

Donald Trump has pledged to turn over the returns once the IRS completed a “routine audit.” That audit was under way in 2015. It takes three years to conduct a routine audit? I do no think so, no matter how “big” the numbers are that Trump has suggested.

It has been matter of political custom — not the law — for presidents to release their tax returns, to open them up for public review. The custom began in 1976 after the Watergate scandal had driven President Nixon from office.

We needed to know then — and we do today — how our presidents earn their income, to whom they might be indebted, and whether they are paying their fair share of taxes. They are, after all, demanding — along with Congress — that the rest of us pay our fair share.

I’m going to set aside for the purposes of this post any discussion of The Russia Thing.

I want to know all I deserve to know — which I happen to believe is a lot — about the president’s fortune. How he amassed it. I want to know whether he skirted federal tax law. I want to know about his debt obligations; after all, Trump said he is “the king of debt.”

None of this should be kept secret from the nation he was elected to lead. Donald Trump, though, is now going back on his pledge to release those returns. He has unleashed his legal team to fight Chairman Neal’s request for the returns.

If the president has nothing to hide — which he has declared many times — then he should have no difficulty showing us what those returns contain. Isn’t that what clean-as-a-whistle politicians do?

business news

Knock off the BS, Mr. POTUS, about those tax returns

If I may borrow a phrase that Donald Trump has used on the political rally stump . . .

Suggesting that an alleged Internal Revenue Service audit of his tax returns prevents him from releasing them to the public is pure, unadulterated bullsh**!

The president has been all over the pea patch on this matter.

He refused to release the returns when he announced his candidacy in 2015; he said he would do so when the “routine” audit was complete. Three years later, we still haven’t seen them. He has said he would release them, then he has reversed himself. The House Ways and Means Committee has ordered the IRS to release them. Special counsel Robert Mueller might have obtained them during his 22-month investigation into The Russia Thing. Now the president would have us believe the IRS is still auditing him.

Now he’s threatening to fight their release.

Why? Is there something to hide?

He has said repeatedly he has nothing to keep secret. For its part, the IRS says an audit does not preclude a release of tax returns.

Donald Trump, moreover, has yet to produce a letter acknowledging that the IRS is even auditing his returns, which makes many millions of believe that Trump is lying — imagine that, will ya? — about the audit.

Americans have every right to demand that the president release his returns, given the role he plays in the setting of tax policy.

I am one of those Americans.

I demand to see those returns. Turn ’em over, Mr. President!

national news

Listen up, IRS: Release POTUS’s tax returns!

House Ways and Means Committee Democrats have thrown down on Donald Trump.

The panel has voted to demand the Internal Revenue Service to release six years’ worth of the president’s tax returns. They have laid down an April 10 deadline; hmm, let’s see — that’s next Tuesday!

Some of us have been yammering and yapping about the tax returns from the moment Trump declared his presidential candidacy. This was before Robert Mueller joined the hunt over “collusion” and other matters involving Russia.

Presidential candidates have been releasing those returns since 1976. Donald Trump has refused. He cited an IRS audit. The IRS has no prohibition against releasing returns while it’s conducting an audit. For his part, Trump has never provided a shred of evidence that the IRS is even auditing his returns; he expects us to take his word for it.

He did pledge to release them while he was running for president. Then again, any pledge that comes from this individual is utterly worthless.

My concern about presidential tax returns deals with the role any president plays in setting tax rates the rest of us have to pay. Accordingly, we need to see those returns to assess for ourselves whether any presidential candidate is paying his or her fair share of taxes, that he or she is doing what we are being asked to do.

That’s only fair. And reasonable. And normal.

The Russia connection makes the tax returns even more titillating, presuming there’s anything to titillate us.

All that Russia stuff aside, we deserve to see the president’s tax returns.

national news, political news

Shameless POTUS continues to keep his tax returns secret

I cannot stop shaking my head.

Three Democratic candidates for president — U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — have released their income tax return statements for public review. What’s more, they are daring the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to do the same.

Good luck, senators and Gov. Inslee. It won’t happen. He won’t be shamed into doing what he should have done when he declared his candidacy in June 2015. Why? Because this individual is utterly shameless. He is beyond redemption in the shame department.

He said after riding down the Trump Tower escalator on campaign announcement day that his tax returns were “under audit.” He then said he would release ’em when the audit was complete. He called it “routine.” So, how long does a “routine” audit take? I’m guessing it doesn’t take more than three years!

The plain truth is that Trump never has produced even a perfunctory letter from the Internal Revenue Service informing him of the audit.

Yes, I believe the president of the United States lied about the audit. My strong hunch is that he wasn’t being audited by the IRS and that he used the audit dodge as a pretext to keep his finances hidden from public view.

While I’m thinking about it, Sens. Gillibrand and Harris ought to inform their Senate colleague, Bernie Sanders — another candidate for POTUS — to do the same thing. Sanders’ excuse was equally lame when he declined to release his returns when he ran for president in 2016; he said something about how “boring” they would be. Really? Let us be the judge of that, Sen. Sanders.

We’re going to go through another election cycle with Donald Trump holding fast to his lie about an IRS audit. He won’t release his returns voluntarily. It’s quite possible Congress could force him to do what previous presidents and presidential candidates have done for decades, which is reveal to the public their income sources and how much they paid in taxes to the government they seek to oversee.

Nice try, senators and governor. If only Donald Trump had a sense of honor to do the right thing. He just doesn’t.

national news

Tax returns? Are they about to surface — finally?

Donald J. Trump’s mysterious tax returns might be about to see the light of day. Finally!

More than two years ago the one-time real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. He then declined to do what other major-party candidates had done since 1976, which is release their personal income tax returns for public scrutiny.

Trump cited a “routine” tax audit. The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t comment on specific audits, but it said immediately that an audit doesn’t preclude release of returns.

That didn’t persuade Trump to do the right thing. He has kept ’em out of public view.

Now comes the House of Representatives with its new Democratic majority. The House Ways and Means Committee appears primed to get those returns, hold hearings and then will seek to release them. The president is likely to fight that effort — even though he says he has nothing to hide!

Wow! What do you think about that?

Republicans suggest Democrats are applying a double standard, that they aren’t demanding it of over presidential candidates. Others, though, have released those returns. Only the president has declined to follow a 40-plus-year political custom.

Think for just a moment:

  • Does a “routine” tax audit drag on for years? No. It doesn’t.
  • Has the president ever produced a letter from the IRS notifying him of an audit? I haven’t seen it. Have you?
  • If the president says there’s nothing to hide, no wrongdoing to be discovered, why doesn’t he release them? Well, I believe he is lying.

That leaves us with his tax returns still in hiding.

The House Ways and Means Committee says it is seeking the tax returns simply for “oversight” purposes, that it isn’t motivated by any “gotcha” effort. Whatever the motives, it is important — for the sake of the transparency that Trump advocates — for the public to see precisely how the nation’s top elected official has earned his fortune.

The president calls it “harassment.” He blames Democrats for conducting a witch hunt. He insists he has done nothing wrong, just as he said that there’s no evidence of “collusion” with Russian election thieves. His behavior and bullying of special counsel Robert Mueller III suggest something quite different.

I remain one of those nosy-Nora Americans who has every right to insist on seeing how the president of the United States has earned his fortune, whether he has followed the letter of the law.

Let us remember this critical point: The president works for us. We are the bosses. Not him.

business news

Tax returns: the gift that keeps on giving

Tax returns have, um, returned to the top of our awareness.

Not my tax returns. Or yours. I refer to the president of the United States.

You’ll recall when Donald Trump stiffed 40 years of political tradition by refusing to release his returns for public scrutiny. He said dubiously that he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. That was more than two years ago! He still hasn’t released them. He is showing not a single indication that he’ll do so voluntarily.

Presidential candidates of both parties since 1976 have released their tax returns in the spirit of full transparency. Trump talks about being transparent, then hides his returns.

They’re increasing in relevance to what has developed. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, likely knows what is in those returns. He likely knows about whether the president has invested in “Russia matters.” He likely knows whether the president has benefited materially from his office, which could be in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, the part that says presidents cannot accept money from foreign governments.

We’ll know in due course whether Mueller has those returns. We’ll know also in due course whether the special counsel has anything incriminating regarding those returns.

The idea that Trump has refused to release those returns because of an IRS audit falls apart on two levels. First, he’s never produced any evidence that the IRS is even auditing his tax returns. Second, the IRS — which doesn’t comment on individual audits — has made it clear that an audit does not preclude any public figure from making those returns public.

My direct plea to the special counsel is this: Make those returns available to those of us who want to know the truth behind our president’s financial dealings.