The full headline, which I couldn’t fit in the DKos header, is “Why Hasn’t Bernie Sanders Released His Tax Returns? (Or Cruz or Kasich, Either...)” Link to David Cay Johnson's article
I assumed that Bernie Sanders must have already released his tax returns and that they were undoubtedly extremely uninteresting. So I was surprised to hear that Sanders’ tax returns have become an issue.
Like many, I am uncertain about relying on Gawker as a trustworthy source of information, particularly when they cite sources like the Washington Beacon. However, David Cay Johnston is probably the most authoritative journalist writing about tax issues, so his post (which I would characterize as an opinion piece, as opposed to a regular news story) for a website called The National Memo made me sit up.
What kind of a website is The National Memo? It states, “The National Memo is a political newsletter and website that combines the spirit of investigative journalism with new technology and ideas. We cover campaigns, elections, the White House, Congress, and the world with a fresh outlook.” Other contributors include Joe Conason, E.J. Dionne, Cynthia Tucker Haynes, Carl Hiaasen, Leonard Pitts, Jr., and Connie Schultz.
On April 1, Johnston wrote (I have bolded some of his statements):
“Bernie Sanders holds himself out to huge and adoring crowds as a model of personal, political and financial integrity. But when it comes to revealing his income tax returns, Sanders is as tricky a politician as Republicans Ted Cruz and John Kasich.”
“So what’s the issue? The Sanders, Cruz and Kasich campaigns have all distributed what they claim are tax returns; Kasich for seven years, Cruz for four, and Sanders for just one year, 2014.
But those proclaimed disclosures were neither accurate nor honest. None of those candidates has released even a single tax return.
What they made public instead was merely a summary known as IRS Form 1040. That form is no more a tax return than the Preamble is the Constitution.
No, a tax return is the entire document filed with the IRS – the forms, schedules, and statements that reveal the numbers and calculations about income, deductions, and tax liabilities behind the summary information on Form 1040. Without the full tax return, the public cannot know sources of income, justifications for deductions, or how aggressively tax law was applied to reduce the income tax due.
History tells us that disclosing complete tax returns, not just a summary form, is vital to determining a president’s trustworthiness….If all we had were Nixon’s and Agnew’s Form 1040s, their tax crimes would have remained unknown.”
Why should we pay attention to David Cay Johnston when he says that disclosing complete tax returns is vital to determining a president’s trustworthiness?
He is a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter (and multiple Pulitzer Prize finalist); I am sure many older Kossacks remember Johnston's coverage of tax policy issues when he was with the New York Times. Wikipedia discusses his reporting as follows, “Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the US tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms. "Johnston described how corporations were paying less in taxes, even as individuals were paying more, with even well-known companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Compaq Computer, and United Parcel Service (UPS) engaging in "what the courts called shams."….In 2001 Johnston investigated the claim that estate taxes, which Republicans call "death taxes," were so high that farm families were being forced to sell their family farms in order to pay the taxes. This claim was presented to prove the need to eliminate the inheritance tax. Johnston challenged those who made that claim, such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, to cite an example of a farm that was lost because of estate taxes, and they were unable to do so. Economists told Johnston that it was a myth. An IRS analysis of 1999 returns found that almost no working farmers owe estate taxes.”
Johnston is currently the board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the quality of investigative reporting. He has also written best-selling books, including:
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Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else (2003)
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Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill (2007)
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Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality (2014)
Johnston indicates that there may be more to consider than the fact that Sanders has not yet released his tax returns:
“As for Sanders, the single Form 1040 he released raises more questions than it answers, especially since the junior senator from Vermont has a history of making incomplete and misleading financial disclosures.
In 2014, he reported an adjusted gross income of $205,271, most of it from his Senate salary.
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.”
Johnston cites Kossack Mark Lippman's diary from February 12 as the first piece he (Johnston) is aware of that discusses Sanders’ tax returns. (Kudos to Mark Lippman for getting a shout-out from a Pulitzer Prize winner!) That diary stated that Sanders should release his tax returns for the sake of transparency and notes that by February 2012, Mitt Romney had already released his most recent completed tax return.
Johnston does note that Hillary Clinton is the only presidential candidate for either party to have released complete tax returns, years of them.
Toward the end of his piece, Johnston states:
“To readers who think this sounds too harsh, I’d say that when Sanders holds himself out as a paragon — running a campaign built on the idea that he remains untainted by money from the rich and powerful — he should be expected to walk the talk….
The question to ask Sanders – as well as Cruz, Kasich, and Trump – is why they are hiding the information they supplied under penalty of perjury to the IRS as a true, complete, and accurate description of their income, deductions, and taxes.”
H/t to robk331, who posted a link to Johnston’s piece in mzjones' diary about Gawker's coverage of Sanders' unreleased tax returns. When I read Johnston’s piece, it seemed worth greater attention. Johnston updated his piece two days after it was originally posted at The National Memo and says:
“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 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.”
David Cay Johnston: Why Hasn't Bernie Sanders Released HIs Tax Returns? (Or Cruz or Kasich, Either...)
4/5/2016: Updated to note that the Washington Post has given Bernie Sanders four Pinocchios for the false claim that he has released his full federal returns. The Post’s experience parallels Johnston’s experience in trying to get more information about Sanders’ tax returns from his campaign. It also makes the same point about the fact 1040 is not the same as a complete tax return.
“But the campaign did not respond to further questions about this topic, including our questions about his decision to release only a Form 1040 rather than a full tax return — and why Sanders claimed he released other tax returns in the past.
The Form 1040 is a partial record and a summary, and devoid of details that tell the public more about how he manages his money….
….The Sanders campaign confirmed to The Washington Post that it has not released other tax returns prior to 2014, which is a sharp contrast to Clinton’s voluminous release of her complete tax returns.”