Presidential debate stirs up controversy on Trump’s tax returns

On Monday, the first presidential debate was aired to an American audience of over 80 million people, setting a new record.

I was among these people, watching the least-popular presidential nominee go head-to-head with the second-least popular presidential nominee. To me, who won the debate is really a tossup: If you like Trump, then most likely you still like Trump. If Clinton is your candidate, you probably still support her.

However, there is a specific point in the debate I would like to write about – the moment concerning the already infamous tax returns.

For those who don’t know, Lester Holt, the debate moderator, asked Trump about the fact that he has not publicly release his recent tax returns. That makes him the first presidential candidate in roughly 40 years not to release his tax returns. Trump responded by saying that once (an ongoing IRS) audit is over, he will release his tax returns.

Lester then noted that Trump is in no way legally stopped from releasing his tax returns while under an audit. The first thing to say about that is, Trump is under no legal obligation to actually release his tax returns. The argument that Trump should release them is that the American people have a right to know about the business dealings of the candidates – who they owe money to, do business with, that sort of thing.

But if that is the case, why stop there? Do the American people also have a right to know the health records of the candidates? There are plenty of people clamoring for the records of both candidates, actually. With their current ages of 68 (Clinton) and 70 (Trump), wondering about their health is reasonable.

A second argument for the release of Trump’s tax records is to show that tax laws are applied to all Americans, rich or poor.

If Trump were to release his tax return during an audit, the outcome would be predictable, however. There would be a whole army of tax lawyers going through them with fine-toothed combs, and submitting their suggestions to the IRS. Forbes has published an article saying that releasing the tax return would be a terrible idea, for that very problem.

I am fine with Trump not releasing his returns, for two reasons. I understand that in his position, it would dim-witted to release it – the aforementioned army of tax lawyers would kick the audit into overdrive. Secondly, I seriously doubt there is something extremely grave hiding in those returns. The worst thing there, in my opinion, would be that he paid a low tax rate, due to clever tax lawyers. But is that really such a bad thing? If the (perfectly legal) option is there, anyone in his position would be stupid not to use it.

It is as simple as, do you, a taxpayer, want to keep more of your money?

In summary, I think the issue with the tax returns is inconsequential, and blown out of proportion by those who want Trump gone. There are much better things to criticize Trump for. As for me, I am content to wait and see what happens next.

Advocate Staff