Gary Peters

For 20 years, I worked as an investment adviser helping families save for a home, pay for their kids’ college and plan for retirement. I know Michigan families work hard to secure the building blocks for a strong financial future, and they should be able to trust that their president can do the same with their tax dollars.



Over the last 40 years, nearly every major party presidential nominee, Democrat and Republican alike, has released his or her tax returns so the American people can better understand how these candidates manage their own finances — before deciding who should manage our nation’s finances.

Unfortunately, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made clear that he believes he can play by a different set of rules. When asked about his tax rate, he said, “it’s none of your business.”

But before Michiganders can ever trust Donald Trump to lead our country, they deserve to know: what exactly is he trying to hide?

A column in the New York Times raises the question of whether Trump is using a bevy of loopholes in the tax code, many of them available to developers, to pay zero taxes.

Is his exaggerating how much money he’s contributed to charities? Is he taking advantage of the tax code by promising not to build luxury homes on his own golf course? Or perhaps he does not want to admit that he may not be as rich as he claims to be?

We now know Trump’s tax plan, outlined at the Detroit Economic Club, would cut taxes for the wealthy. But the American people will never know just how much Trump stands to gain from his tax plan unless he stops stonewalling voters and releases his tax returns.



Trump has insisted that he cannot reveal his tax information because he is under an IRS audit. This is simply not true. He has previously handed over his tax returns in the midst of an audit when one of his casinos was at stake and it was in his personal interest. And as the IRS confirmed, there are no restrictions to making tax returns public during an audit.

What we do know about Trump’s business record, however, is deeply troubling. He talks tough on trade, but as a businessman Trump makes his own Trump-branded products overseas instead of here at home.



With the release of her 2015 tax information last week, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has now revealed 38 years of tax returns. Additionally, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine just released a decade’s worth of his and his wife’s tax returns. In fact, you can see their tax returns online.



Mitt Romney said that it is “disqualifying” for any modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns.



I couldn’t agree more.

Gary Peters, a Democrat from Bloomfield Township, represents Michigan in the U.S. Senate.