Because it would be stupid to do so under audit.


Legal Experts Side With Trump; It Would Be Crazy to Release His Taxes During Audit
In February, when this issue was first brought up by Trump’s Republican opponents, we reached out to high profile tax attorneys and accountants who typically deal with high-net worth individuals.  We posed two questions to them: 1) What would you advise your clients?  2) Do Trump’s statements (above) seem like a plausible explanation to you?

 

Robert Barnes, a Los Angeles based attorney:

 

“I see some of my colleagues would tell their clients to release their tax returns to the public during an audit. Ask them to name a single client they actually gave that advice to. I think that would be legal malpractice, and would recommend their clients sue them if they gave that advice. I advise my clients (hundreds over the years who actually experience an IRS inquiry) to NEVER release their tax returns while an audit is going on.  I am certain Mr. Trump’s lawyers, very capable and well-respected in this field, have advised him not to disclose his tax returns during the audit. There are many reasons for this.

 

First of all, and most importantly, the IRS is not allowed to show your client’s tax returns to anyone else. Such returns are protected by the privacy laws of section 6103 of Title 26 of the Code. The only way they could do so if your client had a lawyer dumb enough to let you disclose those records publicly. The IRS could then misuse this otherwise private information to make the audit process more difficult at many levels, and could cause problems for other entirely innocent businesses you do business with.

 

Second, releasing the returns during an audit could cause anyone who has a grievance with you to misuse the released information, and try to intervene in the audit process, for their own personal, financial or political gain. I have been through this several times in other contexts where such records were obtained by people with an interest adverse to my client, which unnecessarily protracted the process as undue expense and harassment of my client.

 

<p class="">Third, tax returns usually reveal business strategies that may need revision during the audit process, for which untimely disclosure could unduly hinder and harm, with third parties often the victim as much as the client.”

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Robert Kovacev, a Washington D.C. based attorney:

 

“I would absolutely advise a client not to release returns under audit to the public. Critics could pull certain items on the returns out of context and there would be political pressure on the IRS to scrutinize those items even if they ordinarily wouldn’t be controversial.


Lots of transactions span several tax years so he is also right that one years return may be intertwined with another.”

 

Robert Mckenzie, a Chicago based attorney:

 

“I would advise my client that there could be huge risks in releasing complex returns during an audit. Instead of having just an IRS agent review the return it now would be reviewed by  thousands of tax experts.  The first step his opponents would take would be to assign the best tax accountants and tax lawyers on his team to analyze the returns. In addition, reporters would seek out tax experts to review the returns. (I reviewed Mitt Romney’s, Dennis Santorum’s and Newt Gingrich’s returns last cycle at the request on a national publication.) All the comments would lead the agent to more and more issues. On the other hand the political damage of a failure to release may out weigh the risk of a larger tax deficiency.”

 

Continued...

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<p class="">http://lawnewz.com/politics/legal-expert...ing-audit/

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