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Fact check: Is it true that most people don't care whether Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump releases his tax returns?

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Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump

August 5, 2016
By Fact Check by Ballotpedia staff

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump indicated last week that he does not plan to release his tax returns to the public.[1] Although he has filed the personal financial disclosures required of presidential candidates under federal law, he has yet to release any of his individual income tax returns.[2][3][4]

Since February, Trump has maintained that he can’t release his taxes because he is being audited by the IRS.[5][6][7] Asked by Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren on July 28 whether he would release tax data for years not under audit, he said,

“ I haven’t had much pressure [to release my tax returns], I’ll be honest. Most people don’t care about it. The only one that cares is certain people in the media. I’ve had very, very little pressure.[1][8] ”

Is Trump correct that most people don’t care about his tax returns?

No. Polls indicate that the majority of voters think Trump should release his taxes, although opinions vary by party.[9][10][11] Leading Republicans have also called on Trump to release his returns.[12][13][14]

Presidential candidates and financial disclosure

Joseph Thorndike, director of the nonpartisan presidential tax return-tracking Tax History Project, traces the tradition of presidential tax releases to former President Richard Nixon (R).[15]

Nixon's tax returns came under scrutiny in the early 1970s.[15] Until 1969, presidents were permitted to deduct from their taxes the full market value of personal and official documents they donated to government archives.[15] The Tax Reform Act of 1969 changed that, limiting deductions to the cost of the paper used to produce the documents.[15] But Nixon made a sizeable donation to the National Archives—1,176 boxes of papers, with an estimated value of more than $500,000—four months before that part of the act went into effect.[15]

The ensuing investigation, which also identified other issues with Nixon’s taxes, prompted a push for public access to presidential tax returns.[15] Ira Tannenbaum of the public interest group Tax Analysts and Advocates said at the time, “there is an important need to make clear to the American public that income taxes of Americans in positions of power and high visibility are being assessed correctly, and that the tax laws are being applied fairly to them.”[16]

Starting with the next presidential election in 1976, and continuing through the last election in 2012, every major party nominee except Gerald Ford has voluntarily released his tax returns.[17] (Ford released summary tax information.)[17]

Some mandatory personal financial disclosure by presidential candidates was enshrined in federal law two years later, in the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.[18] The required personal financial disclosures include information about candidates' income, gifts, property, investments, and liabilities.[19][20]

However, some information available in tax returns, such as the specifics of tax rates, claimed deductions and credits, and charitable giving is not shared in personal financial disclosures.[21] Thorndike says tax returns can provide insight into candidates’ tax rates, charitable giving, and borrowing and investments, as well as illuminating “the complicated business arrangements that often provide the bulk of a candidate’s income” and “how candidates conduct themselves in the gray areas of the tax law.”[22]

Trump has filed two annual personal financial disclosures as required by federal law, but he has not yet publicly released any of his tax returns.[2][3][4]

Opinions about Trump’s tax returns

Trump aide Paul Manafort told CNN in May that Trump’s tax returns are “an issue that the media is interested in. It's not an issue that Middle America is interested in.”[23][9] Politics and polling site Morning Consult tested that claim in a national survey of registered voters the following week.[9] They found that 67 percent of voters overall, and 60 percent of registered Republicans, think presidential candidates should be required to release their tax returns.[9]

According to another poll that month, from The Washington Post and ABC News, 64 percent of Americans and 60 percent of registered voters think Trump should release his returns.[10] In their own May poll, The Economist and YouGov found that 35 percent of Americans consider it “very important” that presidential candidates release their returns, and 26 percent consider it “somewhat important.”[11] Sixty-one percent, including 81 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of independents, and 38 percent of Republicans, say Trump should release his returns.[11]

Pollsters also surveyed the public about presidential candidates and tax returns at a similar point in the 2012 presidential election cycle. Then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faced criticism for releasing just two years of tax information—his return for 2010, and an estimate for 2011.[24] A poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 36 percent of registered voters, including 56 percent of Democratic voters and 18 percent of Republicans, wanted to hear more about Romney’s tax returns in July 2012.[25] A USA Today/Gallup poll the same month found that 54 percent of Americans thought he should release more returns.[26]

Voters are not the only ones who have expressed interest in Trump’s taxes. Leading Republicans, including Romney, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and an anonymous GOP donor who pledged $5 million to Trump’s veterans charity of choice if he released his taxes, have also called on Trump to release his returns.[12][13][14]

Conclusion

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump indicated in an interview with Fox News last week that he does not plan to release his tax returns to the public.[1] He told interviewer Greta Van Susteren, “I haven’t had much pressure [to release the returns], I’ll be honest. Most people don’t care about it.”[1]

We found that that is not true. According to public opinion polls, a majority of voters think Trump should release his returns, although there is some variation in opinion by party.[9][10][11] Republican leaders have also called on him to release them.[12][13][14]

See also

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Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.

Sources and Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Fox News, "Trump: Clinton Shouldn't Get Security Briefs," July 28, 2016
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 U.S. Office of Government Ethics, "Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report," July 15, 2015
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 U.S. Office of Government Ethics, "Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report," May 16, 2016
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fortune, "5 Things You Need to Know about Donald Trump's Tax Returns," August 5, 2016
  5. ↑ The Washington Post, "The CNN-Telemundo Republican Debate Transcript, Annotated," February 25, 2016
  6. ↑ CNN, "Interview with Presidential Candidate Donald Trump," February 28, 2016
  7. ↑ The IRS cannot comment on individual tax information, but a spokesperson told The Huffington Post, “Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information.”
  8. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Morning Consult, "Poll: Most Voters Think Trump Should Release Tax Returns," May 24, 2016
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Washington Post-ABC News, "Washington Post-ABC News Poll," May 16-19, 2016
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 The Economist/YouGov, "The Economist/YouGov Poll," May 20-23, 2016
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Mitt Romney Facebook Page, May 11, 2016
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Business Insider, "Mitch McConnell: Donald Trump Should Release His Tax Returns," May 31, 2016
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Politico, "Anonymous GOP Donor Pledges $5 Million If Trump Releases Tax Returns," July 12, 2016
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 United States Capitol Historical Society, "JCT Investigation of Nixon's Tax Returns," February 2016
  16. ↑ Tax Analysts, "Income Tax Treatment of Donation of Nixon Pre-Presidential Papers," July 30, 1973
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Tax Analysts, "Presidential Tax Returns," accessed August 4, 2016
  18. ↑ United States Code, "Ethics in Government Act of 1978," accessed August 4, 2016
  19. ↑ United States Code, "Ethics in Government Act of 1978 Title I—Financial Disclosure Requirements of Federal Personnel," accessed August 4, 2016
  20. ↑ Sunlight Foundation, "Why Is the Tax Return a Big Deal and What Information Can You Learn From It?" July 27, 2016
  21. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sunlightfoundation
  22. ↑ Tax Analysts, "Why Should Trump Get Special Treatment for His Tax Returns?" May 12, 2016
  23. ↑ CNN, "Interview With Trump Convention Manager Paul Manafort," May 15, 2016
  24. ↑ The Washington Post, "Mitt Romney to Release Tax Returns Tuesday," January 22, 2012
  25. ↑ Pew Research Center, "Most Say They Already Know Enough about the Candidates," July 24, 2012
  26. ↑ Gallup, "Majority of Americans Want Romney to Release Tax Returns," July 19, 2012

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