During the presidential debate on Monday, Hillary Clinton captured the problem with Donald Trump’s continued refusal to release his tax returns.
“For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns,” Clinton said. “We know the IRS has made clear there is no prohibition on releasing it when you’re under audit. So you’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns?”
“I think there may be a couple of reasons,” she continued. “First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax.”
Trump, who is the first candidate to not release his tax returns in recent years, has given various claims about why he won’t release his tax returns. As ThinkProgress has previously reported, Trump has alternately said he’s waiting for the the auditors to finish and for Hillary to release her emails — and also said “there’s nothing to learn from them.”
Because Trump hasn’t released his tax returns, it’s unclear what his connections to foreign governments may be.
Every major party nominee since 1976 has released some of their tax returns. Clinton has released 39 years of her tax returns. Her running-mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-MN), has released 10 years of his returns. Trump has not released any.
Last week, Donald Trump Jr. said if his father releases his tax returns, there would be a “distraction” and people would have a lot of “questions.”