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I like your reasonable posts, but you voted for neither D or R in 2016? I consider that stance cowardly.
Nothing cowardly about it. Both parties have hidden behind "we need to keep people safe" while they use that as a reason to take away more of our freedoms and hard earned money, and some of us see that and call it out.
If he is required to submit tax returns for public scrutiny shouldn't ALL government officials be required to do the same? It would be a real eye opener to see how much money our congress critters and senators are making from insider trading. Of course their staff are also profiting.
One of the reasons why it is more important (for the American people) for the POTUS to reveal tax returns is unlike Congress, Presidents are relatively exempt from conflict-of-interest laws.
A little 'sunlight' goes a long way in instilling trust.
Mr. Trump is one of the least trustworthy Presidents ... ever.
because its none of their damn business, if IRS is happy with them, then its over with
This! If there was any problems whatsoever, the IRS would have gone after him a long time ago. It's the one thing not even the richest or most connected person in the world can pay their way out of.
Where do people get off saying it is nobody's business?
We, the taxpayers of the US, are Trump's employer--we pay his salary (and for the millions his family costs us). It matters if Trump has all kinds of financial ties to the Saudis, Russia and assorted creepy international thugs. Is he caving to the Saudis and Russia because he owes them or because he loves brutality in dictators?
It means he may be compromised, and this country deserves to know--this man is neither a king or a dictator. He reports to US, and many many of us do not trust him. We know his history and financial failures and screw-ups, his penchant for borrowing money from crooks because banks will not lend to him--he's not credit-worthy.
If he is tied to unsavory characters, owes them money, is a partner with thugs, is being blackmailed, or is a crook, Americans deserve to know. Period.
And why is this clown different from the others? Because he cavalierly and arrogantly told Americans to get screwed, as he refused to divest from his corporation, golf courses and resorts. This makes him highly suspect, and we all know he and his family are privately profiting and enriching themselves off of the office.
If 25% of the country wants to give the crook a pass--fine--that's on them. But if the majority of the country wants to see them they should be made public. If he, like other presidents (other than Nixon) have nothing to hide, he wouldn't be doing everything in his power to keep them secret.
This! If there was any problems whatsoever, the IRS would have gone after him a long time ago. It's the one thing not even the richest or most connected person in the world can pay their way out of.
This is not true. There are laws that restrict the IRS' ability to alert law enforcement to non-tax-related criminal activity uncovered in a tax return:
If you tell the IRS you made $1 million from stealing money or dealing drugs, does the agency tip off the cops?
Legally, it can't, unless a law-enforcement agency gets a court order granting it access to a specific taxpayer's return. The IRS isn't supposed to proactively alert other agencies about misdeeds unless terrorism is involved. In that case, it still needs a court order to disclose anything, but the IRS can initiate the legal process on its own.
The rules are all spelled out in an IRS guide to "section 6103," the law that covers tax-return confidentiality. Like many legal statutes, it's complex and filled with loopholes. For example, the IRS might not be allowed to share the contents of actual tax returns on its own initiative, but it can divulge supplemental information obtained from outside sources -- like witnesses interviewed in an audit investigation -- "to apprise federal criminal law enforcement agencies of possible crimes," according to the agency's guide.
And that's for obvious stuff, like explicitly reporting income from "embezzlement." The IRS does not actively look for things like illegal foreign contacts, because it doesn't have authority to investigate or even report such things without jumping through a ton of bureaucratic hoops.
Cheats ? Probably Bz with some we would not approve of and maybe broke
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