Fact-checking Trump's claims he's under audit [View all]

[babylonsister]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/04/politics/trump-audit-fact-check/index.html

Fact-checking Trump's claims he's under audit
By Donna Borak and Marshall Cohen, CNN
Updated 6:40 PM ET, Thu April 4, 2019

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Facts First: No matter what Trump says, an audit would not prevent him and has not stopped past presidents from releasing their tax returns.

Here's where it gets tricky. Trump's personal tax returns are likely under audit, but it's not exactly what you suspect. Every year dating back to the early 1970s, the Internal Revenue Service has made it a regular practice to audit the personal tax returns of every sitting US president and vice president.

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During the dramatic hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen further questioned the existence of the President's audit. He told lawmakers that he asked Trump for a copy of the audit, so he could discuss the subject with reporters, but he "was never able to obtain one."

"Statements he made to me ... what he didn't want was to have an entire group of think tanks that are tax experts run through his tax return and start ripping it to pieces, and then he'll end up in an audit and he'll ultimately have taxable consequences, penalties, and so on," Cohen explained to California Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez when asked about Trump's tax audit.

Gomez followed up to ask if Trump was not actually under audit at the time?

"I presume that he is not under audit," Cohen said.

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During the 2016 campaign, Trump released a letter from his tax attorneys that confirmed he was under audit. But the letter also said the IRS finished reviewing Trump's taxes from 2002 through 2008. Trump did not release his tax returns from those years, even though the audits were over.

(The letter was deleted from Trump's campaign website, but an archived copy is viewable here.)

So, yes, Trump has almost certainly been under audit since he took office in 2017, like every other American president. But we don't know the status of Trump's audits after 2008. And there's nothing legally stopping him from releasing his taxes even if they're being audited.