A: Yes it does.
My tax return details a mountain of activities and transactions, and is more than a thousand pages long. When a person like me (or a large corporation) is audited, it is a process involving a team of auditors from the IRS, and a team of accountants and lawyers on my side. There is regular discussion on the documentation,and changes occur regularly. The auditors will say that certain revenue belongs in another place, or that a tax credit is inappropriate, or that a deduction lacks proper documentation, or what have you. My team responds, and they arrive at a mutually agreeable resolution of the matter.
There are times when not only the detailed items are changed significantly, but also the income and tax obligations can change quite a bit. I don't want to be put into a position where I "claim" to have given a certain amount of money to charity, then the final document reduces that deduction and I'm called a "liar."
Since I originally submitted my tax return, the documents have been changed dozens of times, and they will be changed many more times before the final returns are published, at which time I will sign them in final form. So to release the returns as they were originally submitted, or even as they look today would be nothing more than a draft document, with no real validity.
But the more important reason why I'm not releasing my returns at this time is because I do not trust the mainstream media. I know that as soon as my returns are made public, organizations like the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, and so on will be mining them to find any golden nugget that they can use to cast me in a negative light. And they will not be employing tax accountants who might understand what they are looking at; they will employ journalists who will be intent on mischaracterizing innocuous information, for the benefit of the Clinton campaign. And with documents this voluminous, I will be fighting off bogus allegations of "wrongdoing" for the remainder of the election campaign.
The public is entitled to know basically what my income is, how it is generated, and how much I pay in taxes, and that information will be published in a credible form prior to the election.
My tax return details a mountain of activities and transactions, and is more than a thousand pages long. When a person like me (or a large corporation) is audited, it is a process involving a team of auditors from the IRS, and a team of accountants and lawyers on my side. There is regular discussion on the documentation,and changes occur regularly. The auditors will say that certain revenue belongs in another place, or that a tax credit is inappropriate, or that a deduction lacks proper documentation, or what have you. My team responds, and they arrive at a mutually agreeable resolution of the matter.
There are times when not only the detailed items are changed significantly, but also the income and tax obligations can change quite a bit. I don't want to be put into a position where I "claim" to have given a certain amount of money to charity, then the final document reduces that deduction and I'm called a "liar."
Since I originally submitted my tax return, the documents have been changed dozens of times, and they will be changed many more times before the final returns are published, at which time I will sign them in final form. So to release the returns as they were originally submitted, or even as they look today would be nothing more than a draft document, with no real validity.
But the more important reason why I'm not releasing my returns at this time is because I do not trust the mainstream media. I know that as soon as my returns are made public, organizations like the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, and so on will be mining them to find any golden nugget that they can use to cast me in a negative light. And they will not be employing tax accountants who might understand what they are looking at; they will employ journalists who will be intent on mischaracterizing innocuous information, for the benefit of the Clinton campaign. And with documents this voluminous, I will be fighting off bogus allegations of "wrongdoing" for the remainder of the election campaign.
The public is entitled to know basically what my income is, how it is generated, and how much I pay in taxes, and that information will be published in a credible form prior to the election.
