海角大神

Yesterday, former IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg (who held top tax positions in the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush)聽urged聽Donald Trump to release at least the Form 1040 and Schedule A of his recent tax returns.聽 It increasingly appears that Trump won鈥檛. But he should.

Trump has argued that he cannot make his returns public while they are being audited by the IRS. But the IRS now audits,聽automatically, the president鈥檚 and vice president鈥檚 return annually. Nonetheless, the president and vice-president voluntarily release their returns to the public.聽

Trump鈥檚 excuses raise new questions.聽Last weekend, Trump鈥檚 new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Trump should keep his returns confidential because his audit is 鈥漚 serious聽matter.鈥澛� But, if Mr. Trump鈥檚 audit is a serious matter, we need to understand why to assess his qualification for the presidency.

True, Trump鈥檚 disclosure of his tax returns might intrude on his personal and commercial privacy. And with an audit pending, citizen auditors might provide the IRS insights that the professional auditors at the IRS overlooked (although the IRS is聽pretty effective at auditing high net worth individuals).

But Trump is no longer merely a businessman.聽 He has chosen to become a candidate for president. The public鈥檚 interest now outweighs his privacy concerns. During a campaign, tax disclosures help the public evaluate a candidate鈥檚:聽

• Finances.聽Is Trump truly a successful business person? Does he give generously to charity as he claims? 聽
• Conflicts. Would Trump鈥檚 tax proposals provide undue benefit for his personal interests? (He says he鈥檇 pay more, which seems unlikely, but it鈥檚 impossible to know for certain without seeing his tax return.)
• Honesty.聽Did Trump lower his taxes through legal tax avoidance, or illegal tax evasion?聽

Trump聽asserts:聽 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing to learn from them.鈥澛� But we would quickly learn a lot, including the bottom line:聽 his effective tax rate.聽 Of course, his tax returns are complicated: 聽He operates his business through more than 500 LLCs.聽 But there are plenty of experts who can help unravel the returns and explain the issues they raise, just as we聽recently assessed Clinton鈥檚 return.聽 Or how we聽explained 鈥渃arried interest,鈥� which was spotlighted by Mitt Romney鈥檚 tax return in the last election.聽聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽聽

Finally, if Trump will not release his tax returns now, will he do so after the election? President Nixon first released his taxes to quiet the public clamor over his reportedly low taxes (and invited the JCT to audit them after the IRS, reportedly, gave him a pass).聽 President Nixon聽famously explained聽鈥淧eople have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.鈥澛� And from Nixon on, every president has聽voluntarily released聽his returns to the public鈥攚ith the prospect of an audit pending.

Candidate Trump should follow the precedent set by every major party presidential candidate鈥攁nd president--since Nixon and release his tax returns.

This article first appeared in TaxVox.