Trump vows not to release taxes
Source: CBS Marketwatch
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wont release his tax returns, saying there is nothing to learn from them.
Read: Trump says he will be first candidate since 1976 not to release tax returns
Tax specialists, however, disagree.
Theres no legal requirement for a presidential candidate to make his or her tax returns public but every major party nominee since 1976 has done so often well before winning the nomination. The likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has posted 8 years of returns.
Trump boasts that he pays as little in taxes as possible but hes not showing, or telling, the voters exactly how he does that.
So what could Trump be worried about revealing?
If Trump releases all the detailed schedules, the tax returns could provide information about his use, if any, of tax avoidance strategies including offshore companies and foreign bank accounts in countries that guarantee secrecy. Trumps name, however, does not come up in the searchable database of the Panama Papers, the name given to the trove of documents taken from a Panamanian law firm that was publicly released.
ack Blum, a former staff attorney with the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who now leads the not-for-profit Tax Justice Network USA, says there are a number of things Trumps tax returns can show voters that campaign disclosure forms, filed in July 2015, cannot.
Without question a man involved in as many real estate deals as Donald Trump will have taken full advantages of all the real estate loopholes and tax benefits, said Blum. His tax returns will show us how far he pushed the envelope to turn ordinary income into capital gains, defer the payment of tax through like-kind exchanges and otherwise create an impenetrable maze for IRS auditors.
The campaign disclosure forms also provide a range of values for Trumps various intangible assets that generate an estimated $131.25 million in income for lending his name to hotel and condo developments and products including cologne, mattresses, steaks and energy drinks. Trumps tax returns could verify the licensing and royalty income he put on his disclosure forms and that he provided to Forbes for its recent 400 richest Americans list.
Trump says his personal brand is worth almost $3.3 billion. Forbes, in its most recent 400 richest Americans list, put a value of the assets that generate royalty and licensing income at approximately $375 million. The magazine says it does not give anyone credit for goodwill associated with their name. Forbes editors believe the net worth of rich Americans will already incorporate any value derived from their names. After Forbes spoke with 20 brand experts, anonymously, none of them agreed with Trumps $3 billion figure. However, none of them thought his brand was worthless, either.
Trumps tax returns would also provide plenty of information about revenue and expense items that were not on the campaign disclosure forms, including personal mortgages, charitable deductions, unusual tax credits, foreign investments including bank accounts in tax havens, and an overall federal tax rate.
For example, the line on the return associated with Trumps real estate income could be confusing to non-experts, says Andrew Schmidt, a professor of accounting and tax at North Carolina State University. Trumps real estate activities likely generate substantial tax deductions: depreciation, interest, and many other legitimate expenses. That means the amount reported on his return for those activities will look lower than most voters expect, said Schmidt. In fact, Trump may even report a tax loss for many of his real estate activities. His supporters may unwittingly equate tax losses with financial reporting losses and question Trumps overall business acumen, especially if some of Trumps more prominent properties generate tax losses.
One asset Trump wasnt interested in arguing with Forbes about was cash. The Trump team told Forbes to use whatever figure they wanted, perhaps to avoid any discussion of whether he has accounts in Switzerland or other banking secrecy havens.
Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/just-what-controversies-could-trumps-tax-returns-expose-2016-03-21
underpants
(182,868 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts).
turbinetree
(24,713 posts)NWCorona
(8,541 posts)turbinetree
(24,713 posts)Andy823
(11,495 posts)I know he put out a partial one for 2014, with a lot of stuff missing, but he also said he would be releasing his 2015 taxes also. Have the been put out to the public yet?
xocet
(3,871 posts)Andy823
(11,495 posts)A simple question is not a "tangent", wow. This isn't about speeches, it's about income tax returns, and how Bernie is a lot like Trump since he too doesn't seem to want voters to see something in those tax returns. If it's so bad for Trump, why the double standard for Bernie?
xocet
(3,871 posts)is transparency. Her speeches likely show her favoritism for Wall Street over the citizens of the US. What is it that she does not want to be known? It seems that she may actually be a lot like Trump in that respect.
Wow.
At any rate, this is a mocking of your post. The thread is about Trump - not Sen. Sanders and not Sec. Clinton.
thesquanderer
(11,990 posts)The people who support him don't care. Just like Hillary supporters don't care about her releasing her speech transcripts. The only people who really make an issue of it are the people who aren't going to vote for her anyway.
and meanwhile he gets yet more free publicity.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,591 posts)and thus his supporters will see it as a sign of strength.
"I could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and I wouldn't lose supporters," Trump bragged in January.
Angel Martin
(942 posts)this may be an attempt at downright refusal, or it may be an opening bargaining position over what info he will reveal, or it may be a deliberate attempt to create controversy and attention to something he wants people to look at...
or a bit of all of the above.
One thing I am sure of, any tax info we get from Trump, he will make conditional on publication of the Clinton Goldman Sachs transcripts.
PatSeg
(47,567 posts)If Trump says, "there is nothing to learn from them", I guess we just have to take him at his word!
vkkv
(3,384 posts)Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)at least it shouldn't. Considering the state of "Journalism" these days who knows.
Kip Humphrey
(4,753 posts)under performing in every regard.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)marble falls
(57,162 posts)Geronimoe
(1,539 posts)Another week of 24/7 coverage of the Donald.
If he were a little smarter he would have said he'll only release them when Hillary releases the transcripts of speeches she made to the Banksters.
dhill926
(16,351 posts)will cheer him on for this.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)I smell blood in the water
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/zWn_vWfQczCGIkRc0XR5SA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAwO2lsPXBsYW5l/
George II
(67,782 posts)ciaobaby
(1,000 posts)xocet
(3,871 posts)Codeine
(25,586 posts)Jitter65
(3,089 posts)And they don't care as long as he is out there trashing Hillary and other Dems.
Bayard
(22,128 posts)Ms. Scandal running against Mr. Scandal should prove interesting. And the media will be drooling more than ever. We look ridiculous to the rest of the world.
In the mean time, Mr. Non-Scandal, Bernie, is looking better than ever.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,033 posts)dbackjon
(6,578 posts)xocet
(3,871 posts)Response to xocet (Reply #32)
Post removed
xocet
(3,871 posts)ciaobaby
(1,000 posts)Kinda a case of you show me yours and I'll show you mine (or not). Maybe Trump and Hill agreed they would both keep their most damaging information under wraps - works for both of them, don't you think?
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)ciaobaby
(1,000 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Pay no income taxes and grab as much "free government state/Federal" money as possible. Game of the fabulously wealthy.
dchill
(38,518 posts)At least he didn't say "I'll look into it..." 'Cause that would have been dishonest, or at least insincere.