Donald Trump says that he gets audited every year, and that has been the case for at least the last 12 years. Trump uses the audits as an excuse for not releasing his tax returns. Meanwhile, the media is filled with reports that essentially no one gets audited 12 years in a row. So what's the truth?
First of all, there is no reason why a tax return under audit cannot be released to the public. It is the tax return that Trump signed and sent to the government. The fact that it is being checked by the IRS doesn't mean that it has to be kept secret. That's like a candidate refusing to release his medical records because he is under treatment for a disease and he hasn't been cured yet. Either way, the records are complete and ought to be released.
Second, is it possible that Trump has been audited for 12 straight years? The simple answer is YES. Why would that be? Again, there is a simple answer. If the IRS audits someone and finds problems with the returns, the agency frequently audits the following years to make sure that those new returns are now correct. In other words, if Trump was audited and the IRS found that he had deductions disallowed or income missing, the IRS would likely check the next year to make sure that the questionable practices had ended. If the IRS found problems year after year, it could easily continue to audit the following returns. A 12 year string of audits of Trump returns likely means that there were problems with the returns for many of the early years.
Third, there is always the possibility that some of the Trump audits were the results of his involvement with the "birthers" who questioned Obama. The supposedly non-political IRS has been extremely political during the Obama years. That would not explain the first six years of audits, however, since they predate Obama's time in office.
Put all this together and it seems likely that Trump is being audited because his returns were either extremely "aggressive" or possibly fraudulent. There's no way to tell for sure without seeing the returns. Even so, Trump needs to release his returns. Being audited is just not an excuse.
First of all, there is no reason why a tax return under audit cannot be released to the public. It is the tax return that Trump signed and sent to the government. The fact that it is being checked by the IRS doesn't mean that it has to be kept secret. That's like a candidate refusing to release his medical records because he is under treatment for a disease and he hasn't been cured yet. Either way, the records are complete and ought to be released.
Second, is it possible that Trump has been audited for 12 straight years? The simple answer is YES. Why would that be? Again, there is a simple answer. If the IRS audits someone and finds problems with the returns, the agency frequently audits the following years to make sure that those new returns are now correct. In other words, if Trump was audited and the IRS found that he had deductions disallowed or income missing, the IRS would likely check the next year to make sure that the questionable practices had ended. If the IRS found problems year after year, it could easily continue to audit the following returns. A 12 year string of audits of Trump returns likely means that there were problems with the returns for many of the early years.
Third, there is always the possibility that some of the Trump audits were the results of his involvement with the "birthers" who questioned Obama. The supposedly non-political IRS has been extremely political during the Obama years. That would not explain the first six years of audits, however, since they predate Obama's time in office.
Put all this together and it seems likely that Trump is being audited because his returns were either extremely "aggressive" or possibly fraudulent. There's no way to tell for sure without seeing the returns. Even so, Trump needs to release his returns. Being audited is just not an excuse.
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