Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump alleged he has been audited year after year by the IRS since president Obama’s election because he is a good Christian.
This was his sad attempt at a comeback to Republican presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) during Thursday’s debate in which they called out Trump for not releasing his tax forms to the public. Mitt Romney, the unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate, claimed Trump’s taxes held a “bombshell.” Trump gave another sad (and untrue) response alleging he could not release his documents while under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
IRS Chief John Koskinen explained in an interview with C-SPAN, “The taxpayer controls his returns. There’s nothing in an IRS audit process generally that would keep you from sharing that information generally, any way you wanted to.”
Koskinen further stated, “It would be rare for someone to be audited every year,” and that someone would not undergo another audit for a few years, “two or three at least,” after IRS audit the previous year.
“It would be rare,” Koskinen stated.
Trump is once again playing the fears and paranoia of religious and conservative Americans who do not trust the IRS or the current administration. Many were upset when the IRS investigated the Tea Party and claimed bias, and believe their religious beliefs have been under attack during most of Obama’s administration. Trump knew if he played the religious discrimination card, he could rile religious extremists.
“We don’t care who you are,” stated Koskinen, “Whether you go to church, or don’t go to church.” Koskinen explained audits occur when something pops up in your tax returns they find suspicious. It’s basically all about the numbers. Party or religious affiliation is not part of any IRS audit red flag, according to Koskinen.
Trump is getting audited year after year because he is suspected of hiding income and not paying his taxes properly, not because he is a “Christain.” If he cannot handle his personal business and then boldly lies about it, one wonders what would happen to the state of America’s finances in his hands, not to mention the ridiculous stories and attempted cover ups Trump would undoubtedly spew through interviews.