In a swipe at presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday introduced legislation that would require presidential nominees to make their tax returns public.
“Tax returns deliver honest answers to key questions from the American public,” Wyden said in a press release announcing the bill. “Do you even pay taxes? Do you give to charity? Are you abusing tax loopholes at the expense of middle class families? Are you keeping your money offshore? People have a right to know.”
Wyden’s Presidential Tax Transparency Act would apply to both Democrats and Republicans, but Trump is the only candidate in the race who has not released any of his returns. Over 30 years of Hillary Clinton’s returns are available on her campaign website, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has released his 2014 filings.
Trump said he won’t make his own tax return public until the IRS completes an audit of his finances, even though the agency says there is no regulation preventing the release of tax returns during an audit.
Wyden’s bill would require candidates to release the past three years of returns within 15 days of being nominated at the party conventions. If a candidate refused to release his or her returns to the Federal Election Commission, the Treasury Secretary would be required to provide them under the legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has acknowledged that Trump’s refusal to release his returns is a departure from decades of precedent, and Trump’s campaign reportedly would require any possible vice presidential picks to release their returns.
As Wyden put it in his statement, “Since the days of Watergate, the American people have had an expectation that nominees to be the leader of the free world not hide their finances and personal tax returns.”
This post has been updated.
