When George Stephanopoulos asked what tax rate Trump paid, Trump responded that the rate was “none of [his] business”, during an interview with “Good Morning America” on Friday morning.
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Yesterday, the billionaire real estate developer, who has often boasted of his wealth, was asked why he had been willing in the past to release his tax information to Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials when seeking casino licences, even though he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
But Trump said he fights “very hard” to pay as little tax as possible because the government wastes money.
The tax returns release is not a legal requirement for the presidential candidates to comply with. That means Trump could potentially become the first major party candidate in 40 years to not release his taxes.
Clinton has not yet released her 2015 tax returns, but years worth of her and former President Bill Clinton’s tax information is available on her website. “I’m always audited…maybe because of the fact that I’m a strong Christian”, said the man who calls the Bible his favorite book but refuses to cite his favorite verse.
On Wednesday, Sam Clovis, chief policy adviser for the Trump campaign, said, “After the administration has been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare…” As he had insisted to the AP, Trump told Van Susteren, “You learn very little from a tax return”.
The likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has posted eight years of returns during this campaign.
“I sort of have to laugh when Clinton says it. Mrs Clinton said I should give my tax returns”.
“They take our tax money and they throw it down the drain”, Trump said.
“Because at the time it didn’t make any difference to me, now it does”, Trump said. “So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?”. (That excuse later fell apart when the State Department began releasing thousands of pages of her emails).
Whatever the reason, Trump’s stonewalling extends beyond his tax returns to questions about how much he pays in taxes.
Stockman said she spoke to about half-a-dozen tax attorneys and only one said that she would advise her client to release their tax returns while under audit.
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Trump reiterated that he won’t release the returns until the audit is complete. If true, it marked a significant departure from longtime Republican dogma on taxes, and many in the GOP were, to say the least, confused. “You’re only giving them to the top”. The litigation ran on for five years, and during that time we had to petition the court to compel Trump to hand over unredacted versions of the tax returns – which he ultimately did.
