Why Won't Trump Release His Tax Returns?

Discussion in 'Budget & Taxes' started by Keynes, Aug 1, 2016.

  1. Keynes

    Keynes Well-Known Member

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    Trump has told us his effective tax rate (the percentage of his income he actually pays in taxes) is, "none of your business," but if Warren Buffet (who pays about 17%) is any indicator, we can assume Trump pays quite a bit less than the guy working at the local packing house. Therefore, the arguement is if people know that, they are going to become angry and possibly not support himin his candidacy. This assumes people tend to operate on the "Rational Person Model" and the fact of the matter is, most people don't. If they did, all that would be needed to repeal the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts would be to present the statistical evidence that there is no correlation between the top marginal tax rates and job creation (and there is a wealth of such information). Instead, Trump would do better to release his tax returns and reframe it as, "Yeah, I admit it. I did take advantage of tax loopholes. Yeah, I do pay less taxes than the average guy working at the packing house. But can you blame me? Wouldn't you?" To which the guy working at the local packing house would say, "YEAH! He's sticking it to the government just like I would if I could. See? He's standing up for people like me!" The Democrats, again, assuming people operate under the Rational Person Model, would trot out the arguement that Trump CAN'T be for the little guy if he doesn't pay as much taxes as they do. And everytime that arguement would be made, synapses in the brains of Trump supporters would fire the "NO! He just doesn't want you to steal any more of his money, just like I don't want you to steal any more of MY money." And everytime those synapses fired, they would make that belief all that much stronger. And the more it was repeated by the Democrats, the stronger Trump's support would be.
     
  2. CourtJester

    CourtJester Well-Known Member

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    Since about half of America pays no federal income tax your logic makes no sense. The Reason Trump won't release his taxes is his entire campaign is based on his pretending to be a financial and business success and obviously his tax returns won't support that mythology.
     

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