OPINION:
The House Ways and Means Committee has voted to release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns for the year 2020, an action that is tougher to justify now with Mr. Trump out of office (“Trump’s taxes: House OKs bill on IRS audits of presidents,” Web, Dec. 22). It also raises fair questions about what kind of personal financial information Congress should be allowed to release against the will of the president or any other U.S. citizen.
But the committee did discover something significant: In 2017 and 2018, the Internal Revenue Service just never got around to auditing the president, an action required by law. It would be good if all presidential candidates released their most recent tax returns. The power of the presidency is unequaled, and if you want to be the one with all that power, you have certain obligations to the public. The American people have a right to know where a candidate makes their money, at least in the most recent years, as well as where they’ve invested their money and where their financial interests lie. The American people are also free to ignore this information, but it is better for the people to have too much information about their leaders than too little.
If Congress wants the public to have more information about presidential candidates’ finances, it could pass legislation making the Federal Election Commission financial disclosure reports more detailed, and with more narrow ranges for assessing the value of assets, etc. But a tax return reveals almost everything: taxes paid and tax rate, deductions and credits claimed, charitable donations, debts claimed, offshore assets and so on. It is reasonable, and not necessarily shady, for a presidential candidate to believe that some small details on their tax return don’t need to be revealed to the whole world, just as we need an accurate assessment of a president’s health but maybe don’t need to know that he has hemorrhoids.
Our system of taxation depends upon citizens revealing all required personal financial information to the government to determine how much is owed in taxes. The IRS is obligated to keep that information confidential.
BRIAN GOLDENFELD
Oak Park, California
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