A flaming Trump-hater asked me this question;
- Jonesy:
- Why do you think Trump hasn’t disclosed his tax returns like he promised he would? Somehow his promise to build the border wall is more important to you and others than his promise to disclose his taxes. Why?????
- Tim
I replied to the group that Tim is in as follows:
I’m only answering Tim because this is a query which is posed often and needs to be answered. Otherwise Tim’s constant finding fault with Trump is not worth responding to.
Trump hasn’t released his tax returns because Trump’s taxes are buried beneath the stack of Obama’s College admissions applications and acceptance, Obama’s College transcripts showing what classes he took and what grades he got, Obama’s finances showing how he paid for college including very pricey Harvard and Columbia and Occidental, Obama’s original certified copy of his Birth Certificate, Obama’s original application for a Social Security Number from Connecticut or even any explanation as to how he got that SS# which is issued to people who are from Connecticut, etc, etc, etc.
But that flippant answer is not the reason Trump has not released his tax returns.
The reason is that the Trump-haters, such as Tim, would have a feeding-frenzy over myriad details of accounting which go in to preparing a voluminous tax return for a very massive business. Tim, by your query I believe you have never owned a business nor had to prepare a tax return for such. I’ve owned or managed numerous businesses from 1974 to the present. Accounting is not black or white in business.
Example: I went to town the other day to get some meds for Beverly. On the trip I stopped by the feed store and picked up four sacks of grain for the Horse Rescue “old guys”, horses in our care that need daily grain. I, of course, bought the grain with Horse Rescue funds. Since I had to get the grain, I charged the mileage for that round trip, 24 miles, to the Horse Rescue as a business expense, to be deducted from our taxes at the current rate of 55 cents per mile. $13 bucks or so. So the Tims of this world would pounce on something like that out of Trump’s return or my Return and say, “That is dishonest accounting! You also did personal business on that trip so you shouldn’t take the full deduction for your business!” Then I would argue to you and to the IRS auditor, “But I had to get grain. What was I supposed to do? destroy the planet by burning more gas by driving another 24 miles while making two trips to town back-to-back or do the logical thing and combine the trips?” I take every deduction which I can by law, including a business trip which can be argued was also a personal trip. Other businessmen do the same.
Reasons such as that are exactly why Trump should not and does not release his tax returns.
Remember when the media got hold of one page of Trump’s tax returns, from 2005? They made a huge deal of it. Rachel Maddow read it on her show and, frankly, had egg on her face when it was revealed that Trump paid $38 million dollars that year in taxes. I’m sure that’s more than any of us have paid in taxes in a lifetime. But, of course, the media had a fit about that because Trump made $150 million that year and paid a paltry $38 million in taxes, which is only 25%. “That much money,” the media screamed, “should have resulted in paying more than $50 million in taxes.” You see how this works? If the entire return, with all the depreciation schedules and the myriad of deductions for fuel tax credit or other things like that were revealed, then the media would have been non-stop for months picking apart every single line in the whole return and demanding that the IRS audit that return again. There would be another witch hunt.
So stop this utter nonsense of demanding that Trump release his tax returns.
Jonesy
Then as a response to Tim’s other question:
Liberal Tim said;
“Jonesy, Somehow Trump’s promise to build the border wall is more important to you and others than his promise to disclose his taxes. Why?????”
My reply: You’re darn tootin’ it’s more important to build the border wall than to see Trump’s taxes! Whether or not we know what is in Trump’s tax returns doesn’t affect America one iota.
But the lack of a Border Wall is killing Americans daily by illegal invaders, whether it be by drug overdose or by an illegal driving drunk or by an illegal murdering someone. And the lack of a border wall is seriously impacting our infrastructure of schools, hospitals, and welfare system
That is a fact. And that was a totally stupid question, Tim.
Jonesy
