Subject: for comms approval -- SL: PFDs Don’t Tell Us Anything About Trump
From: "Freundlich, Christina" <[email-masked]>
To: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>, "Walsh, Tom" <[email-masked]>, "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>, "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2016 08:03:03 -0700

SL: PFDs Don’t Tell Us Anything About Trump

Donald Trump says the American public doesn't have a right to see his tax returns – but his Personal Financial Disclosures don’t really tell us anything about Trump or how much he claims to be worth. His refusal to release his returns breaks the precedent of every presidential candidate releasing their returns dating back to 1972 – because, he claims, it’s “none of your business<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi07oa0qubMAhVLGB4KHdoyBcMQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fpolitics%2Ffirst-draft%2F2016%2F05%2F13%2Fdonald-trump-on-his-tax-rate-its-none-of-your-business%2F&usg=AFQjCNH-AQd9DCxHeFp7rx7P9WuZBA_FDw&bvm=bv.122448493,d.dmo>.”

But it’s not only that Donald Trump doesn’t want to prove to us his wealth or his tax rate; his PFDs yesterday show that Trump has been involved in 100 lawsuits and he is profiting off of Chinese and Mexican companies – which begs the question, what else does Donald Trump have to hide?

The American people ought to know whether Trump has been paying his fair share and how much he would benefit from his own reckless tax plan. If Trump has nothing to hide, and if he claims to be as rich as he is, he will release his tax returns.

See what people are reading:

Details on Donald Trump’s Finances Are Released, but Net Worth Is Unclear<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/us/politics/donald-trump-money.html>
NEW YORK TIMES // STEVE EDER AND KITTY BENNETT
…
The document offered new details on the enterprises and the financial picture of Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. The limitations of the form, however, made it impossible to calculate his specific net worth or to verify his claim that he is worth more than $10 billion.
…

By contrast, Mr. Trump has been unwilling to publicize his recent tax returns, a traditional disclosure by major party candidates that is not required by law. His tax returns could provide a more precise figure than the financial disclosures of how much he actually earns each year, as well as how much he pays in taxes. Mr. Trump has cited Internal Revenue Service audits as a reason for not releasing his returns, and has pointed to his personal financial disclosures — which provide dollar figure ranges, but not actual amounts — as giving an alternate view of his wealth and income.

Donald Trump releases financial info, but still no tax returns<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-releases-financial-info-still-no-tax-returns>
MSNBC // BENJY SARLIN
Donald Trump released new information about his finances this week — but not the information his critics on the right and left are demanding.
…
What the disclosure doesn’t do, though, is shine the kind of light on his finances that Trump’s tax returns would provide. Trump has refused to release his most recent returns — which every major party nominee since 1976 has made public — citing an ongoing audit by the IRS. The IRS, for their part, confirmed months ago that there is nothing legally preventing Trump from making them public in the interim.
…
“It has less to do with showing us the exact dollar amounts of your incomes and assets and a lot more with showing when you have different kind of public policy decisions, how personally invested you are in the outcomes of those decisions,” Joseph Birkenstock, an attorney who specializes in campaign finance law, told MSNBC.
…
This question of Trump’s income and taxes are also loaded politically, because Trump is running on an estimated $9.5 trillion tax cut that would dramatically reduce rates for ultra-wealthy filers. If he released his taxes, voters would not only know his tax rate — and how it compares to that of average Americans — but how much he would save under his proposed changes.
…
But tax returns are another story. The motive is to show that one’s income is as small as possible in order to pay the least amount to the government. The more successful Trump is at arranging his finances to this effect — and he said he tries to “fight like hell to pay as little as possible” — the less impressive his business prowess will look.

Trump's tax trouble: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes, tied to companies<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/19/trumps-tax-troubles/84543538/>
USA TODAY // NICK PENZENSTADLER AND DAVID MCKAY WILSON
While Donald J. Trump refuses to release his federal tax returns, saying his tax rate is “none of your business,” a USA TODAY analysis found Trump’s businesses have been involved in at least 100 lawsuits and other disputes related to unpaid taxes or how much tax his businesses owe.
…
As recently as last week, Trump said he was “willing to pay more” taxes personally and that “taxes for the rich will go up somewhat” if he becomes president. But the lawsuits and other tax-related disputes show a different reality for his businesses. They illustrate a pattern of systematically disputing tax bills, arguing for lower property assessments, and in some cases not paying taxes until the government takes additional action. At least three dozen times, Trump companies’ unpaid tax bills have forced the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to go to local courts to get liens against his properties to try to collect overdue bills. New Jersey also had to go to court for a lien to collect a Trump company’s unpaid tax bill. Eventually, those disputes were resolved, and his companies paid some amount of taxes.
…
Trump has acknowledged that he tries to pay as little taxes as possible, and the public records across the country shed light on how he does it. In documents rarely seen by the public, Trump's businesses regularly minimize the value of his properties for tax purposes. Publicly, including in his presidential financial disclosure report, Trump’s team declares many of those same properties are worth tens of millions of dollars more.

Trump’s new line: Tax returns from thee, not from me<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-new-line-tax-returns-thee-not-me>
MSNBC // STEVE BENEN
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When NBC’s Katy Tur asked a Trump campaign source about the apparent hypocrisy, the source responded, “Trump’s not running for vice president.”

That’s cute, I suppose, but it only reinforces the absurdity of the candidate’s posture. The idea that disclosure and transparency requirements should be tougher for a vice presidential candidate than a presidential candidate is tough to defend.

Making matters worse, with each passing day, new questions arise about Trump’s finances. USA Today reported this morning that a fresh analysis found Trump’s businesses “have been involved in at least 100 lawsuits and other disputes related to unpaid taxes or how much tax his businesses owe.”

It makes it that much more difficult for the candidate and his team to suggest his tax documents are a meaningless distraction.