Income Inequality

Has any other presidential nominee who was the subject of an active IRS audit released their returns? So Trump would be the first to do that while under audit....EVER!!!!!!!!.

Also note that Billionaire presidential nominee Ross Perot did not release his returns either. If I was Trump and not under audit I still wouldn't release my thousands of pages of tax returns and supporting documents. I would set a new precedent. If my required election financial statement isn't good enough for you, don't vote for me.

Here's Trump's disclosure:

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2175187/trump.pdf

Doesn't look like a loser to me.

So your fantasy world begins in 1988. Why not 1998? Or 2008? Or 1978?

"How to lie with statistics" is a book everyone should read. It shows how a lot of supposed analysis is really designed to fool rather than inform. This is clearly the case here.

Anyone who claims you can assess Trump as a 'loser businessman' because your made up wealth numbers, arbitrary timelines and inaccurate comparisons are outperformed by the S&P is either an idiot or a dishonest loser. Which are you?

Sorry...I couldn't resist the classic Forkie false dilemma.

Richard Nixon released his taxes while being audited.

Donald Trump disclosed his tax return while under audit - to get a casino license.

Ok. There's 1.


Trump is right not to release. Experts say it would be stupid.

Forkie, why did you utilize the year 1988 for your calculation? I've not checked, but I suspect that if we look at a starting date of 1990, Forkie's calculations would look much different.

I know Forkie, and I'm confident that the NY real estate market crashed immediately after 1988. Forkie, will you please address this, and tell us how you came up with the year 1988? Also, do you know what year the real estate crash happened, and did that influence you decision to begin the evaluation in 1988? Assuming I'm correct..............without doing research but only knowing Forkies tendencies, Forkie won't address this but will disappear and/or change the subject.

What does "being audited" have to do with one's desire to be transparent? Like Mitt Romeny, Donald doesn't want the public to see his tax records. He's not obligated to show the public. Fine. He should have the balls to admit it.

Instead he's created a bullshit excuse as to why he cant be transparent - and AlanLeroy is happy to run with it.

Oh gosh, I'm shock!

I just found learned that the housing index in Manhattan was at a peak of 100 in 1988, then dropped by 27% over the next 6 years. The index did not again hit 100 until 2002...............14 years after Forkies random year of 1988.

Okay Forkie, how about you repeat your calculations, except this time begin in 1998?

By forkie:"But even if there estimates of Trump's wealth are off by as much as $9 billion, Trump is still a business loser. "

Forky's just reaching for a laugh at this point, has to be. Let's see, even if he's off a by a billion or two...What's your net worth forky, how many people have you created jobs for? Bueller...Buellr.. Bueller?

I thought so.

I was going to say the same, and definitely..no argument there.

Hell I said he shouldn't release his returns even if he wasn't under audit....because the opposition would sic teams of accountants on it to discredit anything they can take out context from thousands of pages of numbers.

But as to bullshit excuses...

Trump is right not to release. Experts say it would be stupid.

Or maybe PJ is now a tax lawyer too.


Trump's Tax Return

Here are just a few legal opinions on it. I'm sure Tax Lawyer PJ has some reasons why these guys are wrong about this. Please enlighten us.

Robert Barnes, a Los Angeles based attorney:

“I see some of my colleagues would tell their clients to release their tax returns to the public during an audit. Ask them to name a single client they actually gave that advice to. I think that would be legal malpractice, and would recommend their clients sue them if they gave that advice. I advise my clients (hundreds over the years who actually experience an IRS inquiry) to NEVER release their tax returns while an audit is going on. I am certain Mr. Trump’s lawyers, very capable and well-respected in this field, have advised him not to disclose his tax returns during the audit. There are many reasons for this.

First of all, and most importantly, the IRS is not allowed to show your client’s tax returns to anyone else. Such returns are protected by the privacy laws of section 6103 of Title 26 of the Code. The only way they could do so if your client had a lawyer dumb enough to let you disclose those records publicly. The IRS could then misuse this otherwise private information to make the audit process more difficult at many levels, and could cause problems for other entirely innocent businesses you do business with.

Second, releasing the returns during an audit could cause anyone who has a grievance with you to misuse the released information, and try to intervene in the audit process, for their own personal, financial or political gain. I have been through this several times in other contexts where such records were obtained by people with an interest adverse to my client, which unnecessarily protracted the process as undue expense and harassment of my client.

Third, tax returns usually reveal business strategies that may need revision during the audit process, for which untimely disclosure could unduly hinder and harm, with third parties often the victim as much as the client.”

Robert Kovacev, a Washington D.C. based attorney:

“I would absolutely advise a client not to release returns under audit to the public. Critics could pull certain items on the returns out of context and there would be political pressure on the IRS to scrutinize those items even if they ordinarily wouldn’t be controversial.

Lots of transactions span several tax years so he is also right that one years return may be intertwined with another.”