Donald Trump takes part in a town hall event moderated by Anderson Cooper on March 29 in Milwaukee. | Getty Trump releases letter backing claims of years of tax audits His returns "have been under continuous examination by the Internal Revenue Service since 2002," his campaign says.

Donald Trump’s campaign released a letter from his tax attorneys Wednesday night saying Trump’s personal tax returns "have been under continuous examination by the Internal Revenue Service since 2002," a reason the GOP presidential candidate has cited for not releasing his returns.

The March 7 letter from Sheri A. Dillon and William F. Nelson says audits of Trump’s returns for 2009 “and forward” are ongoing and says all of the audits are "consistent with the IRS' practice for large and complex businesses."


“Examinations of your tax returns for 2002 through 2008 have been closed administratively by agreement with the IRS without assessment or payment, on a net basis, of any deficiency.”

Trump said he would release such a letter after being questioned about his tax returns in a CNN "Town Hall" on Tuesday.



During a GOP debate in February, Trump said “I’ve been audited every year. Twelve years or something like that."

Trump operates his businesses “almost exclusively through sole proprietorships and/or closely held partnerships,” his attorneys said.

The returns that are currently being examined by the IRS “report items that are attributable to continuing transactions or activities that were also reported on returns for 2008 and earlier,” the letter says. “In this sense, the pending examinations are continuations of prior, closed examinations.”

In February, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said that it would be unlikely for a taxpayer to be audited multiple years in a row. He made his remarks a day after Donald Trump maintained the agency had audited him a dozen years running.

Koskinen, in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” stressed repeatedly that he couldn’t comment directly on Trump’s personal tax situation. But the IRS chief also strongly suggested that the scenario Trump laid out in the Feb. 25 GOP debate was improbable.

