Trump Releases Letter From Lawyers Showing He’s Being Audited By IRS

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally Monday, March 7, 2016, in Madison, Miss. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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Donald Trump’s campaign on Wednesday released a letter from the Republican presidential candidate’s lawyers showing that Trump’s tax returns going back to 2009 are still under audit.

Trump’s attorneys wrote that the real estate mogul’s tax returns have been audited since 2002, and that his audits from 2002 to 2008 have been closed. But they said that Trump’s returns from 2009 and beyond are still under audit.

“Your returns for these years report items that are attributable to continuing transactions or activities that were also reported on returns for 2008 and earlier. In this sense, the pending examinations are continuous of prior, closed examinations,” they wrote.

The letter also notes that Trump’s tax returns are complicated, as the Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly said when asked to release his tax returns.

“Because you operate these businesses almost exclusively through sole proprietorships and/or closely held partnerships, your personal federal income tax returns are inordinately large and complex for an individual,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.

Mitt Romney called for Trump to release his tax returns in February, but Trump has insisted that he cannot do so because he’s being audited by the IRS.

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Notable Replies

  1. So…why not show the returns that are no longer being audited, eh?

    I love the game the media is playing here as they and any sentient being on this planet all know he will never, ever release any returns now don’t we. The RNC should write a new conventions rule that mandates same or…no delegates for Trump!

    Watch him howl!

  2. Is Trump saying that he can’t release his tax returns because he knows that they are inaccurate, and contain demonstrable falsehoods? If, on the other hand, he maintains that his returns are complete and honest, why does it matter that the IRS is auditing them? Which is it?

  3. Most importantly, did said audits start after Trump’s announcement? Otherwise, he’s just another rich fool hoping he can overwhelm the underpaid, understaffed IRS with mounds of paperwork.

  4. I certainly don’t know what’s in those returns but I’ll tell you with absolute certainty what isn’t: the financial portrait of a person who’s worth $10 billion or anywhere within miles of that.

  5. Perhaps the returns merely appear large next to Trump’s hands?

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