At this week’s Republican presidential debate, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio each pledged to release their tax returns — Rubio and Cruz even committed to releasing theirs by today and yesterday, respectively. Their pledges followed criticism by none other than Mitt Romney who argued Trump must be hiding something – and Mitt Romney knows something about problematic tax returns. Of course, Romney’s logic of “they must be hiding something” also applies to Cruz and Rubio who long ago pledged to release their returns but have yet to do so.
Here are a few of the things American Bridge will be looking for when these candidates finally release their returns:
- Is Donald Trump’s net-worth as high as he says it is, or his financial empire a house of cards?
- Did Trump fail to disclose key financial assets on his personal financial disclosures?
- Why is Trump being audited? Surely he can’t think it’s because of his Christian faith, as he asserted after the debate.
- In April 2015, Ted Cruz pledged to release his tax returns within a month. He’s nearly a year overdue. Why?
- Ted Cruz and his family make significant profits from investments. How much does he stand to benefit from his own tax plan?
- Rubio promised in June of 2015 that he would release his tax returns “in a couple of weeks,” then 11 days ago said he’d release them “momentarily.” Why has Rubio waited so long to release them? Why did he need Mitt Romney’s prompting?
- In his previous tax return releases, Marco Rubio only released the first two pages of his tax returns, unlike Mitt Romney who also released nearly all supporting documents. Why did Rubio leave documents out?
- Between his time in the Florida legislature, and winning election to the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio owned two sole proprietorship companies – Rubio Consulting Inc., and Marco Rubio P.A. Will Rubio release the tax returns of these sole membership companies in addition to his individual tax returns in the spirit of full disclosure? If he does,
- What was Rubio claiming as business expenses? Rubio has a history of using political expenses to supplement his personal lifestyle. Was Rubio also doing the inverse – claiming political or personal expenses as business expenses to reduce his tax liability?
- Will they reveal any additional consulting and lobbying clients which are currently undisclosed?
- Will they demonstrate that the Rubio family event planning business had more clients besides Rubio financial benefactor Norman Braman?
Published: Feb 27, 2016