So…you want to run for the school board, eh? First you will have to show us your tax returns. For the last five years.
What? It’s not the school board you want to join? Instead, you want to run for the county board? Okay, hand over your tax returns.
Why? Because we are nosy.
If you say we are unreasonable you are right. I think we are just as unreasonable to demand our president fork over his tax returns. In both cases, it simply is none of our business.
Our last several presidents released their tax returns. It was nice of them. But it was their choice. No law required this. The tradition goes back only to Nixon. He was trying everything to show he was not a crook. Following Nixon, President Ford only revealed a fuzzy picture of his returns.
Here are some reasons people give for demanding President Trump’s returns:
1. We need to know if he told the truth about his wealth. No we don’t. It is none of our business.
2. He may not have paid any taxes some years. That would be unfair. No it wouldn’t. There are many legal ways to reduce your taxes to zilch.
3. We need to know whether he has conflicts of interest when he promotes various policies. Hey, when you own billions in assets you have conflicts of interest when you tip a waiter. Or buy a newspaper. You own a piece of the action in most everything that moves, flies, swims or sinks. Besides, we already know about all his major assets. If he pushes for big tax breaks for golf courses we will be on to him. No need to see his returns.
4. His decisions will hit our pocketbook. We deserve to know whether they hurt or help his pocketbook. No we don’t. Besides, do we really think he is trying to enrich himself further? C’monn. If he wanted to get a lot richer he would have kept working in business.
5. We need to know if his returns were accurate and honest. No we don’t. If they were not, the IRS would tell us. They audit the guy every year. Every year. They love to nail celebrities. There is no pelt they would treasure more than Donald Trump’s.
Meanwhile, your school board members make decisions that hit your pocketbook. City and county representatives do too. They all can raise taxes on property you own. They can raise taxes on much of what you buy. They can feather their own nests with their proclamations. Yet most of us will feel it unreasonable to demand they trot out their tax returns.
If you got your hands on President Trump’s tax returns you would need help handling them. They run to many thousands of pages.
If we locked you in a room with them for a year I bet you would not figure them out. Unless you are an accountant. Even then, such returns are complex upon complicated. They are based upon complex and complicated parts of our tax code. My guess is that you would be lost within minutes.
Beyond that, you probably would not understand the many moves his advisors had him make. He probably does not understand them. Even people who run small businesses often cannot explain their own returns. Only their tax advisors can. Such are the complexities of our tax code.
Reporters would not understand any more than you would. But they would love to pluck what look like juicy bits. To use in nasty headlines. To paint the man as a villain.
Senator Chuck Schumer says that reforming taxes for the rest of us will be more difficult now. Because our president has not released his returns.
This is one of the stupidest comments to ever come out of Washington. And it faces a lot of competition. Here is what the good senator suggests: The taxes 138 million Americans pay should be determined by whether Donald Trump releases his old returns.
And congressguys wonder why voters hold them in such low regard? Senator, I suggest you dig around for another bone to chew. I suggest the same to all those who drool for President Trump’s returns. I think he would be smart to release them. But it is his choice.
Meanwhile, it is none of our business.
From Tom…as in Morgan.
Find Tom on Facebook. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com