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kallend

Trump won't release his taxes because...

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Several reasons;

The larger your paperwork, the bigger the chance is there's a mistake. Trump's tax report supposedly runs something like 500 pages and at least 100 LLCs. There is almost without question something shady in there somewhere. How shady and how intentional is to be seen, but I can't imagine there not being something questionable in it.

The next reason is almost assuredly finding out how much he makes versus how much he actually pays. Because he's a land developer, he can almost always get away with paying very low taxes through various schemes; none of the least of which is he can offset the taxes from gains on one property from losses on another. If a project fails, so what?

Lastly, ego. He's unquestionably worth more money than I'll personally ever come in contact with, but . . . is he worth as much as he says he is? I doubt it. Trump runs a classic confidence game. A "HUGE" part of that game is convincing people he's "The best! Believe me!" Well, what if it turns out he's not actually as wealthy as he has claimed? People would lose confidence in him and his ego just isn't going to allow that if he can help it.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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income from real estate investments is never taxed as highly as "earned income" so my speculation is that its just a matter of what would be revealed as his insanely low tax rates compared to an average citizen.

Plus the tax credits he may qualify for could be considered detrimental to hi image.

Plus, he's 70, which means he is also likely collecting social security. I know how much that turned my stomach when I saw an income tax return for a client with over $1M in unearned income, and still collecting their social security. I get that its "theirs" and they earned it, but it still feels wrong.

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So what if he's paying a low rate? If he's doing it legally than what is the problem? The root of the problem isn't people and businesses taking advantage of loopholes and such to save money, that's what tax lawyers and accountants are paid to do, and businesses and business people are obviously in business to make maximum gains. The root of the problem is a tax code that is convoluted, nearly 13,500 pages long (187 times longer than it was a century ago), and full of legalese and loopholes that folks can take advantage of.

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I think he could always come up with a halfway plausible reason why he pays little or nothing in taxes. I think his bigger problem is that he gives next to nothing to charity. From what I understand, he has not given anything to his own foundation in years.

I think they would also show unsavory connections to China and Russia.

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kallend



Speculation welcome.



It is none of our business.

I have thought this for years.

No candidate should have too IMO.

Someone most likely used this as a tactic years ago to get their opponent to release theirs thinking their might be some embarrassment in there they could use and it has stuck over the years.

Oh well.....
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

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Quote

It is none of our business.

I have thought this for years.

No candidate should have too IMO.



I have agreed with this in the past and I still agree with it. But it comes with "another side of the coin".

When you boast of your wealth and the amount of money you have supposedly donated to charity you are setting yourself up to provide proof.

If Trump had never done so, I would be the first to say there is no reason for him to provide his tax returns. But since he has made all these claims, there is nothing wrong with demanding he provide some evidence to support them.

Specially since there is evidence that he is lying about his charitable donations.

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billvon

>It is none of our business.

Unless it's Clinton. Then she should immediately release her medical records.



wow

a direction change already


When did this change to med records????
I have not said anything about that.

You OK?
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

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SkyDekker

Quote

It is none of our business.

I have thought this for years.

No candidate should have too IMO.



I have agreed with this in the past and I still agree with it. But it comes with "another side of the coin".

When you boast of your wealth and the amount of money you have supposedly donated to charity you are setting yourself up to provide proof.

If Trump had never done so, I would be the first to say there is no reason for him to provide his tax returns. But since he has made all these claims, there is nothing wrong with demanding he provide some evidence to support them.

Specially since there is evidence that he is lying about his charitable donations.



Evidence???

Oh, I forget, in your world the seriousness of the claim or charge is considered evidence.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

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Never said it wasn't legal. I just think that's one of the reasons he won't release his returns. He's benefiting personally from the existing system, and yet claims to be the one who can change the system. Why would he change anything?

The tax code is full of loopholes, and he takes advantage of every single one he can get, and when people find out the kind of loopholes available to him, it will have a negative affect on his campaign. That's pretty much my point.

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You haven't addressed anything in my post.

Trump has made claims regarding his wealth and his charitable donations. Should he just be believed on his word or should he provide some evidence to back up those claims?

If he should provide some evidence, wouldn't tax returns by the best source?

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Trump has everything to lose and nothing to gain by releasing his tax returns. The media will only dig into it, chop it into pieces and use it to attack him every day for last60.

Then it is better to cope with the already established whining from the same players.

When it comes to releasing vital information, how about Hillary coming clean with whatever is wrong with her? Trumps tax returns may lower him 1-3% in the polls.

Hillary's health records would do far more damage to her, IMHO.

Finally, IRS needs to think twice before auditing another non-liberal before election season next time. I am stunned that Hillary campaign did not coordinate this better.

There is still lots of time to learn it..

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DrSher

Trump has everything to lose and nothing to gain by releasing his tax returns. The media will only dig into it, chop it into pieces and use it to attack him every day for last60...



Doubtful. There is a ton of things that the media is ignoring about Trump. Why should this be any different?

I would think it's mostly his ego that is stopping the release. I doubt he makes anywhere near what people think. And much of it is from licensing his name for stuff (both guesses on my part).

Then there's also the simple fact that he is likely cheating some. If he releases the returns, and people go over it very carefully (and with an intent of finding wrongdoing), it's quite possible that some shenanigans will be uncovered.

Not that the media would investigate that any more than his bribery of AGs in Texas & Florida fraud associated with Trump U, mob connections (both US & Russian), rape allegations and on and on.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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>Hillary's health records would do far more damage to her, IMHO.

Hmm.

Evidence that Hillary had pneumonia vs. evidence that Trump is dependent on Russia for much of his income?

I have a feeling that only RushMC would interpret that as "far more damage to Hillary."

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wolfriverjoe


Then there's also the simple fact that he is likely cheating some. If he releases the returns, and people go over it very carefully (and with an intent of finding wrongdoing), it's quite possible that some shenanigans will be uncovered.



He's being audited. The purpose of an audit is to correct any misinterpretations of his tax responsibilities. So anything people catch later - has already been covered, or is in the wide grey area.

His return is also not going to confirm his wealth. Tax returns address income, not assets. When you're a billionaire, everything you do attempts to minimize realized income.

But it is certainly going to confirm that he's been lying his ass off about charity donations, the reason why he blackballed the Post all summer. It's likely to show a personal self interest in the tax proposals he's made. It will likely show that his various projects (mostly S corps) don't show large profit, which is great for paying less, but blunts his claims of economic genius.

If the ongoing audit really were a legitimate excuse, he could have released last year's (and prior) returns. But we all know better. He might have had a better shot at claiming a principled stand if he hadn't called out Romney for the same. Hadn't demanded birth records and college transcripts for Obama.

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SkyDekker

***We don't know that. He claims he is.
Oh come on. He would never lie.


Oops, well maybe he did a little bit.
Inconceivable!
=======================
Trump Questioned Obama Birth Certificate In 2014, Despite Campaign Statement

The campaign statement is false: Trump didn’t stop questioning President Obama’s birth certificate in 2011.
Sept. 15, 2016, at 8:47 p.m.
Andrew Kaczynski - BuzzFeed

A Trump campaign official said on Thursday in a statement that Donald Trump now believes President Obama was born in the United States.

In the issued statement, the campaign praises Trump at length, and states that he brought the so-called birther issue to its conclusion in 2011 when Obama released his long-form birth certificate. But that’s false. Trump didn’t stop being a birther in 2011 — he continued stoking conspiracy theories after that.

In one 2014 exchange with Irish TV, for instance, he defended his birtherism at length.

“You questioned his citizenship during his campaign, and you said afterwards if he produced that long-form birth certificate, you’d produce your tax returns. But you didn’t do it, did you?” asked Ireland TV3’s Colette Fitzpatrick in May 2014.

“Well, I don’t know — did he do it?” Trump said. “[B]If I decide to run for office I’ll produce my tax returns. Absolutely. I would love to do that.[/B] I did produce a financial statement even though I wasn’t even running. I did produce a financial statement and it was shocking to some because it was so much higher than people thought possible.”

“The president should come clean.. . .He should have come clean over the years. If you remember the very famous story where I offered him $5 million if he showed some basic records and he never took me up on it. And that would be for charity. So charities would have benefited and it would have been a great thing.”
=================

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