Bernie refuses to release tax returns, blames his wife

[Lief 🗽]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/bernie-sanders-wife-tax-returns-221511

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[The Free North]

Normally I dismiss most of what Lief posts in the 2016 forum as inconsequential nonsense, but this is actually worth kicking up a fuss about and I have to admit it is disturbing that Sanders has dodged this issue so many times especially given the rhetoric out of his campaign regarding personal wealth and charity.

[Blair]

If Hillary said Bill does my tax returns just imagine the anger

[Lief 🗽]

[Ebsy]

Jake Tapper has been a goddamned hero this cycle.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

His wife does their taxes, not a lawyer or service. Give the Sanders family some time.   

He makes his Senate salary.

There ya go.

[Ebsy]

There have been irregularities in his past tax forms, and undisclosed rental property and rental income. It begs the question: what does Senator Sanders have to hide?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

If Hillary said Bill does my tax returns just imagine the anger

I think it would be more like "waaaaaaa? Bill is actually doing tax returns? "

Though seriously, that was unfortunate thing to say.

[Adam Griffin]

Haven't Romney and Trump proven that releasing tax returns is for chumps?

[Landslide Lyndon]

From the article I posted yesterday which has been updated.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/why-hasnt-bernie-sanders-released-his-tax-returns/

Tapper then gently challenged Sanders on issuing only Form 1040, a summary, but not his full tax returns. Sanders said, “No that’s not true. That is not true, we have released them in the past.”

But the Sanders campaign has not provided me with any returns after I repeatedly requested them. My web searches have not turned up any Sanders tax returns, save the 2014 Form 1040. But if someone has located complete Sanders tax returns, please email me via davidcay@me.com.

If there are no full returns available, then the Senator has offered a deceptive response. If his campaign clarifies his remarks (or releases his tax returns  back to 2007, when he became a senator), I’ll update again.


To the point, I think that's probably the main reason Sanders refuses to release his full returns:

What appears unusual are his itemized deductions, totaling $56,377, a whopping 27.4 percent of his income. People in his income class of $200,000 to $500,000 on average take 15.6 percent of their income as deductions, while those in the $100,000 to $200,000 range averaged 18.8 percent. Both averages are far below the Sanders itemization rate.

Sanders and his wife paid $27,653 in federal income tax, or 13.4 percent of their adjusted gross income.

[DrScholl]

He doesn't seem to have any money outside of his Congressional salary, so I'm not sure why he doesn't want to release his returns.

[Holmes]

He doesn't seem to have any money outside of his Congressional salary, so I'm not sure why he doesn't want to release his returns.

Shenanigans regarding his itemized deductions but nothing will come of it.

[This account no longer in use.]

Yeah, this really doesn't seem like a real controversy.

[Torie]

Maybe he's late in filing them. If so, his wife should get busy!

[ProgressiveCanadian]

Yeah, this really doesn't seem like a real controversy.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

His financial disclosures from the last 26 years are all here.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/reports.php?year=2004&cid=N00000528

[Ebsy]

His financial disclosures from the last 26 years are all here.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/reports.php?year=2004&cid=N00000528

Disclosures aren't tax returns. And congresscritters have a habit of not disclosing things.

[Lyin' Steve]

If Bernie gets to spend, in aggregate, hours and hours of his life repeating his attack lines about Clinton not wanting to release private discussions with Goldman Sachs executives about global strategy that she had a few years ago, then Clinton gets to attack him for refusing to release his tax returns when she's released twenty years' worth.

She's not, though, because she holds her campaign to a higher standard than Bernie and isn't going to stoop to using "if he gets to insinuate nasty things, so do I" as motivation to do something pointless.  Neither of the candidates likely have anything to hide, they just don't want private details revealed for the sake of political sport.  Clinton also may have discussed specific, private details of Goldman's future plans that Goldman doesn't want out there; in fact she may not even have access to the recordings, and if so keeping them private may have been part of her speaking contract.  At least with Bernie he definitely has his tax returns, likely in a shoebox somewhere, and could have an intern scan and upload them in five minutes.

[izixs]

His financial disclosures from the last 26 years are all here.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/reports.php?year=2004&cid=N00000528

Huh, Sanders got a commemorative plaque from Ross Perot in 2004. Weird.

As for the actual issue, sure, make some noise for a release. But its silly to act like this is the worst thing ever at this point. If in weeks and months he was still refusing, then it might actually be a problem. But since he was just asked to release his returns for what feels like the first time this campaign, I'm not too concerned. I suspect he figured the disclosures were enough and so didn't think this would be an issue.

But of course, silly season continues with everything being the worst thing all the time. Sigh.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Wow. Pretty frustrating when candidates are held to ridiculous standards, huh?

Welcome to the last 25 years of Hillary Clinton's life.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I don't care unless he's going to be nominated. And he has to win New York for that to happen. I don't see him doing that currently.

[Wiz in Wis]

His wife does their taxes, not a lawyer or service. Give the Sanders family some time.   

He makes his Senate salary.

There ya go.

Gee... if only they had a multi-million dollar campaign that could take the paper copies she keeps in the den down to kinkos to have them photo-copied.

[Fusionmunster]

I could literally give you all my tax returns in a matter of minutes. Either Sanders has something to hide or there's some incompetence on his part. I think its probably the latter but still, the man's a senator with a staff who should have all of these on file and ready to be released at a moment's notice.

[Lyin' Steve]

Why is he having his wife do his taxes?  The campaign has $100MM, but it's taking its best surrogate off the trail to do taxes just to save a couple hundred dollars?  Is this the kind of decision making he'll bring to the White House?

[Landslide Lyndon]

His financial disclosures from the last 26 years are all here.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/reports.php?year=2004&cid=N00000528

Huh, Sanders got a commemorative plaque from Ross Perot in 2004. Weird.

As for the actual issue, sure, make some noise for a release. But its silly to act like this is the worst thing ever at this point. If in weeks and months he was still refusing, then it might actually be a problem. But since he was just asked to release his returns for what feels like the first time this campaign, I'm not too concerned. I suspect he figured the disclosures were enough and so didn't think this would be an issue.

But of course, silly season continues with everything being the worst thing all the time. Sigh.

According to the reporter from National Memo he is asking for months now to see his tax returns and the campaign is either ignoring or stonewalling him. This isn't a matter that popped up during the last few days just because the social media decided to pay attention now.