“Everybody” would agree with him that he can’t release them, Trump insisted. He has promised to do so, but has declined to give a date. “Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay”.
Advertisement
Trump has also accused Romney of making this request for purely political reasons, noting that Romney did not release his tax returns this early in the election cycle, but instead waited until September 2012.
“Alan Olsen, who is now the managing partner of a California accounting firm called Greenstein Rogoff Olsen & Co., said the IRS typically spaces out audits when no problems are found”.
“I’m always audited by the IRS, which I think is very unfair”, Trump added. Some conservative and liberal bloggers have criticized the billionaire for not quickly releasing his tax records, which have already been filed with the IRS, before the nomination process is wrapped up. But the odds of being randomly audited every year for a decade is vanishingly small – and Trump’s statement that “four or five” years of his tax returns are actively being audited raised even more questions.
Ted Cruz (R-TX) went after his opponent Donald Trump for not releasing his tax returns while being audited.
Trump, who has said he’s worth more than $10 billion, has responded by calling Romney a failed candidate and posting on Twitter: “Just for your info, tax returns have 0 to do w/ someone’s net worth”. I’ve had it for years, I get audited.
“Well, maybe because of the fact I am a strong Christian and I feel strongly about it. Maybe there’s a bias”, Trump said.
During Thursday’s debate, Trump predicted what anyone reviewing his tax returns would find: “nothing, nothing”. “He lost a race that should have been won, and it should have been won easily, and I don’t know what happened”, Trump said.
“There’s nothing really that interesting in them”, Rubio said about his tax returns. For the sake of transparency, Thorndike said, they should release their full returns, complete with all attached schedules.
Mr Cruz, Ohio governor John Kasich and Florida senator Marco Rubio have all vowed to release their tax returns soon.
Advertisement
As for the Democratic candidates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released eight years of tax returns, dating from 2007 to 2014, in July.
