Rachel Maddow’s release of Trump’s 2005 “client copy” tax return flops

President Donald Trump earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes in 2005,” according to the Associated Press.The pages from Trump’s federal tax return show the real estate mogul also reported a business loss of $103 million that year, although the documents don’t provide detail. The forms show that Trump paid an effective tax rate of 24.5 percent, a figure well above the roughly 10 percent the average American taxpayer forks over each year, but below the 27.4 percent that taxpayers earning 1 million dollars a year average were paying at the time, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Why Aren't Americans Filing Their Taxes This Year? IRS Says 6 Million Fewer Filings Than 2016

Disaffected liberals not willing to pay taxes to a government run by Donald Trump?  Families just so flush with cash that they don"t need those tax refunds this year?   Americans just getting lazier?

Whatever the reason, Americans are simply not filing their taxes in 2017.  As the Internal Revenue Service recently reported, we"re now officially halfway through the 2017 tax filing season and nearly 6 million fewer people have filed their returns than at the same point in 2016, that"s an 8.5% decline.  Meanwhile, average refunds are actually up 0.8% but that doesn"t seem to matter all that much.

As Bloomberg points out, this has been a consistent trend throughout the 2017 tax season.

Meanwhile, there are several potential reasons why Americans may not be filing their taxes this year:

Simple Procrastination

“Customers waiting longer to file their returns is a trend we have observed for the last four years, although it’s more pronounced this year,” said Sanjay Baskaran, president of online tax preparer TaxAct.

More and more people who used to file in January and February are waiting until the last minute. Last year, IRS data on April 15—the traditional tax deadline—showed individual filings running 5.8 percent behind the previous year. But the deadline was April 18 in 2016, which gave taxpayers an additional three days to file. In the week following April 15, a whopping 12 million tax returns came in, and filings ended up 1.7 percent higher than in the previous year.

It"s Donald Trump"s Fault

The political rhetoric of President Donald Trump may be scaring some taxpayers. With the Republican promising to crack down on illegal immigration, undocumented immigrants may be afraid to create a paper trail with the government by claiming tax refunds.

John Hewitt, chairman and chief executive of Liberty Tax, raised the possibility in a call with analysts March 8. Undocumented immigrants often use individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) rather than Social Security numbers to file. “Those ITIN filers are filing at a reduced level this year,” Hewitt said. They’re “probably fearful of the Trump initiatives.”

It’s also possible that the overall political atmosphere could be affecting filing. The Trump administration is enforcing the health insurance mandate differently this tax season, while Congress moves quickly to gut the Affordable Care Act, and Trump has promised massive tax cuts. Although no tax code changes would affect what you currently owe, Julie Miller, a spokeswoman for TurboTax owner Intuit Inc., speculated that “there could just be confusion, or [people are] waiting for the dust to settle.”

Delayed Refunds

In an effort to crack down on fraud, Congress passed the PATH Act 1 , which requires the IRS to increase scrutiny of certain tax credits often claimed by low-income households. As a result, the agency warned it wouldn’t issue refunds this year until Feb. 15 for the millions of returns claiming the earned income tax credit or the additional child tax credit.

That delay could be a big factor affecting millions of taxpayers who haven’t filed yet, several analysts and tax company executives said. While issues with undocumented immigrant returns may be a “fringe factor,” the PATH act is the main reason for the delay, said Piper Jaffray analyst George Tong.

“A lot of early season filers want their money and want their money fast,” Tong said. If filings are delayed, “it throws a wrench into consumer behavior.” Liberty’s Hewitt seemed to agree that the refund delays are a larger issue. “The PATH Act has created a massive change in the industry,” he said.

Mass Confusion

The PATH Act affects taxpayers claiming the earned income and additional child tax credits–about 27 million people claimed the EITC last year–but other taxpayers may wrongly think the rule changes affect them, sowing confusion. “Many people assumed this was the holding of refunds until [mid-February] for everyone,” said Michael Millman of Millman Research Associates.

H&R Block Chief Executive Officer Bill Cobb cited this “uncertainty” as a factor in delayed filings. “Taxpayers who typically file in January and early February appear to be less motivated to file quickly, given that their refunds may be delayed,” Cobb said in an earnings call on March 7.

Delay all you want—until April 18, that is, when your filing is due—but you’ll pay for that procrastination: Tax prep companies punish late filers by hiking their prices as the tax deadline approaches.

But, delay as you might, in the end there are only two certainties in life:

NYT's Nick Kristof Urges IRS Employees To Illegally Leak Trump's Tax Return

On Sunday evening, the New York Times" columnist Nicholas Kristoff urged IRS employees Sunday to break the law, and leak Donald Trump’s tax returns to his publication: “If you’re in IRS and have a certain president’s tax return that you’d like to leak, my address is: NYT, 620 Eighth Ave, NY NY 10018,” Nicholas Kristof wrote on Twitter.

But if you"re in IRS and have a certain president"s tax return that you"d like to leak, my address is: NYT, 620 Eighth Ave, NY NY 10018. https://t.co/ujYe100Tn9

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) March 6, 2017

As the Hill reminds us, the release of an individual"s unauthorized tax returns is a felony. While reporters who publish illegally obtained information that they did not solicit are traditionally not prosecuted - recall that in September 2016 the NYT released an old Trump tax return without legal consequences-  the legal picture becomes less clear if the reporters are involved in the leaking of the information.

On this issue, the U.S. code on unauthorized disclosure of information states quite clearly that "It shall be unlawful for any person to whom any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) is disclosed in a manner unauthorized by this title thereafter willfully to print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return information... Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution."

A veteran NYT reporter, the Harvard-educated Kristof has covered global affairs for the NYT since 2001. Last September before the election, the Times was sent Trump"s 1995 tax documents anonymously. After verification, the paper printed the documents in full a few days later. 

Shortly thereafter, Trump’s attorney sent a letter to the paper"s editors stating that publishing the tax documents was “illegal” because "Mr. Trump has not authorized the disclosure of any of his tax returns.” 

New York Times editor Dean Baquet had stated publicly earlier in September that he was willing to risk going to jail to publish Trump"s tax returns. Should some IRS "source" respond to Kristof and illegally share Trump"s tax documents, Baquet may get his request.

WikiLeaks Proves they Were Never in Trump’s Corner, Promise to Release his Tax Return

During the run-up to the election and up until the inauguration, Donald Trump made repeated promises to release his tax returns. However, like all presidents before him, after he was sworn in, he quickly began breaking promises and releasing his tax return was at the top of the list. This broken promise has spurred an epic response by WikiLeaks who is now promising to release them.

Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns. Send them to: https://t.co/cLRcuIiQXz so we can.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 22, 2017

Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to the president, said on Sunday that Trump will break a 40-year tradition and not show America the extent of his financial interests and obligation.

“The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,” Conway said. “We litigated this all through the election.”

Conway went on to assert that most Americans don’t care about Trump’s tax returns, noting, “They voted for him, and let me make this very clear: most Americans are — are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like.”

However, according to the Guardian, last week a Washington Post-ABC poll showed that 74% of Americans, including 53% of Republicans, want to see Trump’s returns. In October a CNN poll found that 73% of registered voters, including 49% of Republicans, wanted to see the tax returns.

A petition on Whitehouse.gov, calling for the Immediate ‘release Donald Trump’s full tax returns, with all information needed to verify emoluments clause compliance,’ has received more than double the number of signatures required for the president to address it.

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The call for Trump’s financial records is not based in some fantasy land as his dealings with foreign nations who may hold his debt could affect the decisions he makes as President.

The unprecedented economic conflicts of this administration need to be visible to the American people, including any pertinent documentation which can reveal the foreign influences and financial interests which may put Donald Trump in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

If you think that Trump’s foreign interests are irrelevant, think again. During the election, Trump registered at least eight companies in Saudi Arabia alone — a country, linked to terror on a massive scale who Trump has said he “would want to protect.”

In fact, at least 111 Trump companies have done business in 18 countries and territories across South America, Asia and the Middle East, a Post analysis of Trump financial filings shows.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with conducting business in other countries, the fact that the president of the United States, who is calling for the ‘punishment’ of businesses who outsource to foreign countries, keeping his dealings entirely secret, is nothing short of a kick to the face.

In spite of the majority public interest in Trump’s financial transparency, the president has given Americans a preview of what’s to come — blatant secrecy.

During the campaign, WikiLeaks was repeatedly accused of being in the corner of Trump after the released the tens of thousands of emails from John Podesta that exposed the crimes and corruption of Clinton and her cronies. However, Assange went on record multiple times, noting that if and when they get something on Trump, they will release that too.

For the record, @kylegriffin1, @wikileaks has been encouraging whistleblowers to leak Trump"s tax returns since well before the election. pic.twitter.com/ooDuwxtFXg

— Ben Spielberg (@BenSpielberg) January 22, 2017

Now, it appears they are making their point even more clear by calling Trump out once again for flip-flopping on his promises.

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“Trump’s breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts,” a WikiLeaks Tweet on Sunday read.

Trump"s breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 22, 2017

Unfortunately, Trump has pulled the wool over the eyes of many Americans on the right. Just like Barack Obama’s election effectively silenced the antiwar left with empty promises and lies about ending wars, Trump appears to be silencing the anti-corruption right with empty promises and lies about transparency.

The good news is, however, that organizations like WikiLeaks, and the independent media who help disseminate that information, are able to provide a level of transparency that America’s government lacks — at least for now.