WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is sticking to his new explanation for why he can’t yet release copies of his recent tax returns: The IRS is auditing him, as Trump says it has for the last 12 years.
“Until my audit is finished, you’re not going to see anything,” Trump said Friday, adding that he believes the government has unfairly targeted his returns. “I’m not going to complicate things.”
Tax experts say that explanation has them scratching their heads – emboldening Trump critics who argue that the celebrity businessman-turned-candidate’s personal finances remain unexamined.
During Thursday’s debate, Trump predicted what anyone reviewing his tax returns would find: “nothing, nothing.” But the odds of being randomly audited every year for a decade is vanishingly small – and Trump’s statement that “four or five” years of his tax returns are actively being audited raised even more questions. The IRS’s normal statute of limitations for an audit is three years – though that time frame is extended in instances of substantial underreporting and there is no time limit on reviews in the event of fraud.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions from the AP about why the IRS would be auditing his tax returns past the normal three year period. At the Christie endorsement event, Trump ignored questions from a reporter on why he would keep private earlier returns not at risk of audit.