Trump admits he's hiding his taxes because they could be used against him

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Thursday, July 14, 2016, 4:43 pm

In 2012, Harry Reid mentioned that one of Mitt Romney’s old partners reported that the Mittster hadn’t paid any taxes in a decade. Romney became so incensed that, in just a few weeks of effort, he released returns to prove it wasn't true.

Romney denied the accusation and denounced Reid. He ended up producing 1.5 years of filings showing that he had paid a tax rate of roughly 14 percent ? in other words, extremely low.

Yeah. Extremely low. As in lower than the rate paid by individuals making $37,650 a year. Which some people had the nerve to complain about. And what’s up with releasing 0.5 of a return? Anyway, Trump noticed that Romney took criticism for paying less than his gardener.

“But let me tell you, he gave those tax returns and they were absolutely fine. He was destroyed. They went through his returns, which were peanuts compared to what I have. You saw the stacks of paper. He gave his returns, and they found little items, little items in those returns that were nothing.” …  

Presidential candidates don’t normally acknowledge that they are taking a position in order to avoid tough headlines. But that’s precisely what Trump seemed to be suggesting on Wednesday. Trump did give himself cover by continuing to insist that IRS audits are to blame for his failure to reveal his tax returns. But that seems even less legitimate now.

And hey, are you ready for a moment of actual irony?

Trump was among the choir of those urging Romney in 2012 to release his tax returns more quickly to get those headlines out of the way. Now, it’s Romney who is arguing that Trump is hiding some sort of shocking revelation in his own returns.

We’ve seen the evidence that Trump gave nothing to charity, and the last time the public got a peek at his taxes he paid $0. It would also be interesting to see how Trump reported using a charity to give big gifts to himself. Hillary Clinton has released decades of her returns, and proposed changes that would significantly raise her own taxes while Trump’s tax proposals would gift him millions.

Don Trump has every reason to be scared. Because what he’s gotten away with in his taxes? It’s pretty scary.

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