With all the talk of the concern for privacy, Democrats and their media continue to call for President Trump to release his tax returns, even though there is NO election rule that dictates any candidate for office do so.
Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals.
NYT columnist urges IRS employees to unlawfully leak Trump’s tax returns
Nicholas Kristof, take note you’re asking someone to break they law and you could be breaking the law as well.
Like all other citizens, U.S. presidents enjoy this protection of their privacy. Since the early 1970s, however, most presidents have chosen to release their returns publicly.
— Tax History.org
While only ten presidents in our nation’s history have voluntarily-released their tax returns, Trump’s opponents are still demanding to invade his privacy and make it public to the world, a situation a Democrat in 2008 did everything she could to avoid.
Again, until there is some kind of legislation or maybe even a Constitutional Amendment to make the release of a private citizen’s tax returns public, this is nothing but a phishing expedition for any information that can be used to smear President Trump.
Let’s be clear, the Federal Election Commission only requires the candidate’s committee to file the quarterly financial information of a campaign, not the candidate’s personal tax filings.
Then again, maybe politicians aren’t that stupid because if you can require a president to release tax returns, what’s to stop any state or federal entity from creating laws that could demand the same of a United States Congress and/or Senate candidate all the way down to a local candidate for a town selectboard?
That would be oh-so intrusive, right?
Leave a Reply