As the calls for transparency grow louder, here’s a rundown of the major moments and shifting explanations in the Trump-tax-return saga. | Getty The evolving tale of Trump's tax returns Most U.S. presidential candidates would be eager to squelch any speculation they’re Russian sleeper agents. But Donald Trump is not most candidates.

Most U.S. presidential candidates would be eager to squelch any speculation they’re Russian sleeper agents. But Donald Trump is not most candidates.

Amid swirling questions about his possible financial ties to Russia, Trump reiterated last week that — unlike every presidential candidate since 1973 — he doesn’t plan to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit.


At first, Trump suggested he was prohibited from releasing the returns because of the audit, even though an audit carries no such stricture. (Ask Richard Nixon, who released his returns while being audited). Now Trump says his lawyers have advised him not to do so.

As the calls for transparency grow louder, here’s a rundown of the major moments and shifting explanations in the Trump tax-return saga.

Jan. 24: Mitt Romney calls for all candidates to release their returns.

“Four years ago today, I released my taxes; became issue. 2016 candidates should release taxes before first contests,” Mitt Romney tweets.

Jan. 24: 'I have everything all approved and very beautiful.'

Trump tells NBC’s Chuck Todd his team is preparing his returns for release.

“We’re working on that now. I have big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very beautiful and we'll be working that over in the next period of time,” Trump says on "Meet the Press."

“This is not, like, a normal tax return,” he says at one point, referring to the complexity of his business operations.

He also says, “I try to pay as little tax as possible because I hate what they do with my tax money.”

“…I pay, it's a little tax. And I say it. And the reporters said, ‘That's the most refreshing answer I've ever heard on taxes,’ because everyone tries to build it up, like Mitt Romney,” Trump says.

Feb. 24: The Romney 'bombshell.'

"Frankly, I think we have a good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes," Romney tells Fox News.

“I think there's something there. Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he's been telling us he's doing,” he adds.

Trump responds on Twitter, saying Romney’s tax returns “made him look like a fool.”

Feb. 25: I can’t, because I’m under audit.

During a GOP debate, Trump says he can’t release his returns because he’s being audited.

“As far as my return, I want to file it, except for many years, I've been audited every year,” he says. “Twelve years or something like that. Every year, they audit me, audit me, audit me.”

“I will absolutely give my return, but I'm being audited now for two or three [years' worth] now so I can't,” he adds.

Feb. 25: This is just the IRS targeting Christians.

Immediately following the debate, Trump speculates to CNN about the real reason for the audit: "Well, maybe because of the fact that I'm a strong Christian, and I feel strongly about it, maybe there's a bias," he says.

Feb. 26: IRS chief weighs in.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says there’s no reason an audit would prevent Trump from releasing the returns.

“From our standpoint, if you’re being audited, and you want to do something else, share that information with your returns, you can do that,” Koskinen says in an interview on C-SPAN.

March 30: The letter.

Trump lets his lawyers do the talking.

“Your personal tax returns have been under continuous examination by the Internal Revenue Service since 2002, consistent with the IRS’s practice for large and complex businesses,” two Morgan, Lewis & Bockius tax lawyers write to Trump in a letter dated March 7, 2016, and posted to his campaign website March 30.

Tax experts immediately point out that technically, an “examination” is not the same as an “audit.” The letter in a sense tries to have it both ways. The campaign offered it as proof of Trump’s claim that he is under audit and that he’ll release his returns once he’s no longer under intense scrutiny from the tax collector. But by taking pains to point out the scrutiny is actually pretty routine for complex businesses like Trump’s, his lawyers give him cover to bat down the notion he’s seriously violated tax laws.

The letter also offers an explanation for why he won’t release the pre-2008 returns for which the IRS exams have been resolved: Because of “continuing transactions,” it states, “the pending examinations are continuations of prior, closed examinations.”

May 11: The Trump fake.

The Associated Press reports Trump “said he doesn't believe he has an obligation to release his tax returns and won't release them before November unless an ongoing audit of his finances is completed before Election Day.”

“There’s nothing to learn from them” he says in the interview with the AP, which adds, “He also said he doesn't believe voters are interested.”

Many observers seize on the first part of the statement — that Trump “won’t release them before November” — which leads Trump to tweet that he’s been misunderstood: “In interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!”

May 11: Romney, take 3.

“It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service,” Romney writes in a Facebook post.

“… There is nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited. Further, he could release returns for the years immediately prior to the years under audit. There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them. Given Mr. Trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it's a bombshell of unusual size.”

May 13: My rate is 'none of your business.'

After ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asks him what rate he pays, Trump responds, “It’s none of your business. You’ll see it when I release.”

May 22: Clinton piles on.

“He needs to release his tax returns. The only two we have show that he hasn't paid a penny in taxes,” Hillary Clinton says on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Washington Post, citing a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, reported the previous day that Trump “paid the federal government $0 in income taxes” for at least two years in the 1970s.

June 17: Two more years with no tax dribble out.

Trump didn’t pay tax for two years in the early 1990s, POLITICO reports, citing New Jersey gambling regulators’ records.

“Welcome to the real estate business,” Trump says in response.

July 13: David Brock dangles $5 million for the returns.

Clinton backer David Brock announces an anonymous GOP donor has pledged to give $5 million to Trump’s preferred veterans charity if he releases his returns.

July 27: Manafort: Don’t hold your breath.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort pooh-poohs the Russia speculation while reiterating Trump’s refusal to release the returns during an interview with CBS.

“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them,” Manafort says. “It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process.”

July 28: Look what happened to the last guy who was transparent.

“I remember with Mitt Romney four years ago, everybody wanted his, and his is a peanut compared to mine. It's like a peanut. It’s very small. Not nearly as big a document. I mean, mine, you saw the picture where it's two or three feet high,” Trump tells Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.

“… By the w ay, Mitt Romney did nothing wrong,” he continued. “But when they gave them, they found a couple of little sentences. If you remember Harry Reid lied about it. He told a dirty lie. And Mitt gave that and after he gave it, they found a little sentence and they made such a big deal. He might have lost the election over that.”

Many times: What’s the big deal? Nothing to learn from them.

Feb. 25, during the GOP debate: “You don’t learn anything from a tax return."

May 8, to NBC: “You don’t learn much from tax returns.”

May 11, to AP: “There’s nothing to learn from them.”

