FROM THE LEFT
Still waiting on those tax returns
According to the websites of the IRS Audits Internal Revenue Service and H& R Block’s Tax Information Center, the IRS can include returns filed within the last three years in an audit. If they identify a substantial error, they may add additional years. They usually don’t go back more than the last six years. The IRS tries to audit tax returns as soon as possible after they are filed.
However, as a rule of thumb, if the IRS hasn’t audited your return within two years after you filed it, the IRS generally won’t audit your return unless there’s something egregious. Once the IRS selects your case for audit, they have 36 months to complete it.
In a majority of cases, the IRS will wrap up its tax audit within one year. Even though the agency has up to three years to audit a tax return, the IRS prefers to conclude audits before the expiration of the statute of limitations.
In fact, according to the IRS training guide, IRS agents have to “strictly adhere to” the relevant guideline to close tax audits within a period of 26 months after the date of filing or due date of the return, whichever is later. In cases where tax fraud or misreporting is involved, the agency does not have to comply with the statute of limitations. If there is a huge amount of unreported income, then the statute of limitations is six years.
So, why has the person we know as the President of the United States vehemently and consistently refused to let the public see his tax returns?
In a 2016 speech, Mitt Romney said, “We will only really know if he’s a real deal or a phony if he releases his tax returns and the tape of his interview with The New York Times. I predict that there are more bombshells in his tax returns. I predict that he doesn’t give much, if anything, to the disabled and to our veterans. I predict that he told New York Times that his immigration talk is just that — talk. And I predict that despite his promise to do so, first made over a year ago, that he will never ever release his tax returns. Never — not the returns under audit; not even the returns that are no longer being audited.
He has too much to hide.
Nor will he authorize the release of the tapes that he made with The New York Times. If I’m right, you’ll have all the proof you need to know that Donald Trump is indeed a phony. Attacking me as he surely will won’t prove him any less of a phony. It’s entirely in his hands to prove me wrong. All he has to do is release his back taxes like he promised he would and let us hear what he said behind closed doors to The New York Times.” Romney used the address, a targeted critique of Donald Trump, to declare that the candidate’s promises were ‘worthless,’ describe him as a ‘fraud’ and claim that ‘he’s playing the American public for suckers: he gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.’
Following the speech, Trump immediately responded with what Politico described as ‘withering scorn,’ dismissing Romney as a ‘choke artist.’ At a campaign rally in Portland Maine, Trump told supporters, in reference to the 2012 presidential election, ‘I backed Mitt Romney. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ He would have dropped to his knees.’
Trump’s contenders for the Republican primary election all said he was unfit for the office. Trump appointed White House defectors have said the same.
I join the majority of Americans who wish for his early resignation this year — that will be a Happy New Year!
Choice Edwards