Donald Trump says he can’t release his tax returns because he is being audited. He says he will release them after the elections. If he maintains his position, it would be the first time in 40 years that a major party presidential candidate did not divulge his tax returns.
Bill Moyers’ daily briefing reports that the IRS says it has no problem with a candidate’s decision to release tax returns while an audit is ongoing. What about Trump’s tax returns from previous years? Why can’t he release 2010-2014? Are they still being audited?
“Republican candidate’s tax whiplash –> In an interview published yesterday, Donald Trump said he would very likely not release his tax returns before the November election. He then “clarified” on Fox News that he would love to release his tax returns, but is being audited and cannot. The IRS then clarified that, “Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information,” even during an audit. Hanna Trudo writes for Politico that the candidate insists there is nothing interesting to see.
“So, to summarize: Obama has to release his birth certificate and college transcripts but Trump’s tax returns are, meh,” tweeted The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Some Americans exceptional is all over the place.
So, has Obama released his transcripts? Let me answer that…NOPE.
You’re comparing college transcripts to tax returns? Really???
Hahahahahahahaha!
The mystery behind Hillary’s missing emails. There I fixed the title for you.
“It would be the first time in 40 years that a major party presidential candidate did not divulge his tax returns.”
The Trumpeter has to know that showing tax returns doesn’t limit the “magic”
of the office. After all, the fruit on the table, today IS with showing tax returns…
No matter what is on them…the “establishment” will make hay with them. He can’t win. The lawyers have advised him not to present them. Isn’t it enough to know that he has a huge income…spends a lot..donates a lot..and probably has as many tax shelters that the law will allow? It is not important to many people. Personally, I am only interested in knowing that they contributed X% to charity.
Here’s the bargain Trump’s likely to strike: I’ll release my tax returns when you release those speeches to Wall Streeters…
No mystery… read this: Why do you think? This article offers reasons why he might want to avoid scrutiny. I pate it her but at the NY Times article- link there are embedded links. Here, First is the Final sentence– because For ME it says it all: –>
“There’s something distinct about information: Refusing to share it doesn’t keep voters in the dark. If they THINK ABOUT WHY the CHOICE not to reveal it is very revealing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/upshot/what-we-can-learn-from-donald-trumps-unreleased-tax-returns.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_up_20160513&nl=upshot&nl_art=3&nlid=50637717&ref=headline&te=1
“One of the constants of modern elections is that presidential candidates have released their recent tax returns. There is no law requiring this. This transparency is based on a norm. It’s a norm that has persisted through all modern elections, even among candidates who have suffered a degree of political embarrassment.
“But Donald Trump has told The Associated Press that he does not expect to release his tax returns before the election, citing a continuing audit. Despite earlier assurances that he would release them, his stated argument is that “there’s nothing to learn from them.”
“There may indeed be nothing interesting to learn from Mr. Trump’s returns. But economic theory about the incentives for disclosure suggests that voters may reach the opposite conclusion. After all, choosing not to disclose something is an action that reveals something.
“A thought experiment will help illustrate why. Let’s say that you are running for president, and your tax returns are the absolute classiest tax returns imaginable. Your income is honestly earned, you pay an appropriate amount of tax, you don’t use questionable tax maneuvers, and your returns show that you give generously to charities that do good work. In this situation, you want to release your tax returns so that the voters will think more highly of you.
“What if your tax returns are very classy, but not quite this classy? If you don’t release your returns, voters will infer that they’re not the very best tax returns. And if that’s all they know, they’ll infer that you’re in the middle of the pack of those who don’t disclose — that they’re merely pretty good. This means that if your returns are better than pretty good and you make your tax returns public, you’ll rise in the electorate’s estimation. And so you voluntarily reveal your returns, so that the voters learn that you’re better than they would otherwise think.
“O.K., now we’re in a world in which everyone with at least pretty good tax returns makes them public. What if yours are only mildly embarrassing? If you don’t release them, the public will infer that your returns are definitely no better than “pretty good,” and perhaps much worse than that. But “mildly embarrassing” isn’t so bad compared with the universe of tax returns that are worse than “pretty good,” so you’re better off disclosing.
“This explains why candidates like Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton were willing to release their returns, despite revealing useful ammunition for their opponents. In each case, it was a savvy choice, because not revealing would have led voters to infer they were hiding something worse.
“This incentive to disclose keeps cascading.
“Those with the cleanest tax returns disclose, leading those with the next cleanest returns to disclose, so as to differentiate themselves from the dirtier non-disclosers. As more people disclose, the remaining pool of non-disclosers is even worse, and the least rotten among them will want to disclose to escape the inference that they have something to hide.
“”If you’ve got the second-worst tax return imaginable, and everyone who is cleaner than you discloses, the public will infer that you’ve either got the worst or the second-worst possible return. Far better to clear up the confusion that you don’t have the most dishonorable tax return that’s possible, and so you also choose to release your tax returns.
“Follow this logic, and you’re left to infer that the only person who won’t voluntarily release their tax returns must have the most to hide. It doesn’t just say that Mr. Trump has more to hide than Mrs. Clinton; it says that he has more to hide than any other candidate you could imagine.
“Think about it. The problem for Mr. Trump is that the voters don’t know if he’s Honest Donald or some other Donald. But Mr. Trump knows. If he’s Honest Donald, he’ll release his tax returns to make sure that voters know that he’s neither dodgy nor deplorable. And if he’s dodgy, he will release his returns so that we know he’s not deplorable. Only Deplorable Donald — the worst possible Trump — has no incentive to disclose.
“By this logic, a candidate would hide tax returns only if they paint a terrible picture about finances and integrity. (If there were the risk that Mr. Trump’s returns would reveal commercially valuable information, that would be a reason that he could be not-seedy yet still want to keep his returns private. He has yet to make this argument, though.)
“You actually use this logic every day to make sure you don’t get ripped off. If I were offering to sell you a used car, and refused to let you take it for a test drive, what would you infer? It must be a dud, unable to even start. After all, even if it ran poorly, you would let me drive it, at least to reassure me that it actually does run.
“Likewise, you wouldn’t buy stock in a company that refused to show you their books.
This same idea is why you demand the right to inspect a good before you buy it, or if it’s in a box, you demand the right to return it if it turns out to be a dud. You can’t return presidents, which is why voters have traditionally demanded the right to inspect them first.
“There’s something distinct about information: Refusing to share it doesn’t keep voters in the dark. If they think about why, the choice not to reveal it is very revealing.
Trump is a snake oil salesman. He sells you something that will cure everything, but he doesn’t say how these miracle cures will happen, or what the ingredients are inside the little bottle. He just works the con, takes your money, and stays one step away from the law.
What was it Trump said about murdering someone on Fifth Avenue, and still winning the election? This isn’t just a meaningless metaphor. It’s his truth that he’s speaking through his gigantic ego.
This man may not be evil, but at the least he’s extremely unstable. In all probability, some of those suffering people who bought the snake oil, suffered far worse fates than hangovers. Instead of cures, they may have cheerfully swallowed the con man’s poison.
Buyers beware.