If you are gonna hide bribes or collusion or whatever... yer not gonna hide it in your tax forms. I think he just won't release them cause he knows it sends everyone into a tizzy to withhold them.

I think he is not hiding anything specific, I mean any multimillionaire's tax returns are going to look criminal to us plebes. But they pay a lot of money to a lot of lawyers and accountants to make sure that is not the case.

So, the real reason I think he hides them is because he can, and because it makes his enemies insanely angry.

I don't necessarily disagree with that. But, I think he did some math here, and decided the outrage caused by keeping his taxes secret was of such greater advantage that he was able to set aside satisfying his narcissism.

I'm going to guess that the total amount of people in the US who didn't vote President Trump, solely due to his taxes, is somewhere between 5-10 people total.

Hard to say. This is a synthetic political issue that was rolled out in the days of Nixon, iirc. It is just one of the small pieces of the overall design to make politicians look criminal with no real proof. Don't get me wrong, they are all criminals imho, it is just in this one area I see it as a kind of trap, and they spend a lot of money to make sure their taxes at least look legitimate. The IRS also reviews all of these tax returns (of the super rich) very carefully already.

He loves bragging about how successful he is

I mean, a billionaire property tycoon who is also in the highest political position of power in the country.

Sounds pretty successful to me

I love the "Trump is the dumbest billionaire president ever" argument.

"Trump is the dumbest billionaire president ever"

Oh, you mean the private Ivy League educated guy who attended the number one on the planet MBA program?

That guy?

What sort of education do you have where you can this guy dumb?

I'm not a fan of his and I agree. In no way is he dumb. He may lack any sense of tact and humility, but dumb he is not.

The numbers show it all, when people see how the tax system works and how he makes it work for him many would awaken and follow. Is it necessarily good is the question? If people view and learn we will see a lot of unforeseen change.

If anything it's probably something along the lines of him receiving credit or a lax tax bill due to his bankruptcies.

Or reducing his previous loses to his gains. Nothing illegal, just frowned upon.

Probably something along these lines. Due to his business dealings he may not have had to pay taxes for years due to capital gains/losses. Itemization of many things that could be damaging as far as surface value. Who knows? Donny is very ego-centric, it's not my belief that he looks at itemized failures as acceptable, especially for publication.

Revealing his taxes could also prejudice potential investors in his businesses.

Very true, there is life after POTUS.

Yup, and for his children. I doubt he intends the brand to end with him.

I dunno, ask Rachel Maddow.

because it was funny to set up Maddow.

I think it's pretty obvious that he has done lots of business within Russia and used Russian banks for a lot of deals. This only matters because of the MSM narratives that Trump is Putin's puppet. IMO, it's not proof of where his loyalty lies. Give the man a chance. The news has never been more fraudulent in their covering of a president.

I think we can speculate that

He is not as wealthy as he claims

He owes Russian banks and individuals enormous amounts of money

He has received enormous amounts of money from Russians.

He has not paid much if anything in federal Income taxes

Nothing, I wouldn't want my tax fillings to be public knowledge either.

I wouldn't want my tax fillings to be public knowledge either.

do you recognize that there is a different expectation of transparency for the POTUS than for a random citizen?

The POTUS should be held to the same standard as anyone in a high position of power.

Now tell me if any Senators, top military generals, chairmen for the security services have their tax returns made public...........

well thanks for dodging my question, that's all the answer i needed

I want to know:

How many votes total in the US did Trump lose out on solely for not posting his tax returns and not any other possible reason?

I'm going to guess out of the whole US, it's in the ball park for 5-10.

It clearly wasn't a big enough issue to make him lose the election.

Anyone who thinks he hasn't been under IRS scrutiny for most of his public life is dreaming. Wasn't he recently under audit? If they had found something, he wouldn't be president, he'd be sharing a cell with Wesley Snipes, Richard Hatch, and Martha Stewart.

That he's not as rich as he claims and deeply in debt to Russians.

I’m sure he’s s taxes “look” shady to a non-businessman. Didn’t he say during the debates that he took advantage of loopholes and incentives? I’m sure he took all kinds of write-offs that would seem unfair to most. As he said... he didn’t make them... he as a smart businessman used what was written to his advantage.

I'd be embarrassing if it were found out that Trump's main employer is the Kremlin. Just my two cents.

He took tax deductions of special extra small condoms as a medical expense

Nothing illegal. Most likely a low tax rate by using clever loopholes like everyone else at that level of wealth. Also likely some business losses that might hinder his ability to get investors.

If there was anything in his taxes that was illegal they would have already been leaked.

There are so many people in government looking for anything on Trump the accusations would have already been made.

Hard to say. This is a synthetic political issue that was rolled out in the days of Nixon, iirc. It is just one of the small pieces of the overall design to make politicians look criminal with no real proof. Don't get me wrong, they are all criminals imho, it is just in this one area I see it as a kind of trap, and they spend a lot of money to make sure their taxes at least look legitimate. The IRS also reviews all of these tax returns (of the super rich) very carefully already.