Donald Trump has been under increased pressure to release his tax returns but has repeatedly demurred in recent weeks. | Getty Trump's claim on tax audits baffles There's no legal restriction preventing him from releasing his tax returns, even if he's being audited.

Donald Trump’s claim that he’s been subjected to a dozen years of IRS audits isn’t unusual for a billionaire businessman, but his claim that it's preventing him from releasing his tax returns sure is.

The mogul has been under increased pressure to cough up his returns but has repeatedly demurred in recent weeks, offering up vague explanations about why it’s not feasible for him to do so.


But on Thursday night’s debate stage, he provided the most explicit reason yet: 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 said. “Twelve years or something like that. Every year they audit me, audit me, audit me. I have friends that are very wealthy people” who never get audited.

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

Stanford law professor Joseph Bankman said it’s not so odd for a man of Trump’s wealth to be subjected to repeated audits. “A lot of super wealthy individuals, and all large companies, are audited every year,” Bankman said Thursday night.

But he said Trump’s statement that he “can’t” publicly release his returns is a headscratcher.

“I'm not sure why that prevents him from releasing his returns. They are his to release,” Bankman said.

While tax returns are confidential by law and can’t be released by the IRS, there’s no legal restriction on Trump publicly releasing his own forms if he sees fit. Also, some of Trump's past returns are not under audit. At this point, he hasn't released those either.

And to add to the perplexing explanation, Trump hinted after the debate that the IRS is targeting him because he’s Christian.

“But the one problem I have is that I’m always audited by the IRS, which I think is very unfair. I don’t know, maybe because of religion, maybe because I’m doing something else, maybe because I’m doing this, although this is just recently,” he told CNN, referring to his campaign.

CNN then asked what Trump meant by “religion.”

“Well maybe because of the fact that I’m a strong Christian, and I feel strongly about it. And maybe there’s a bias,” Trump said, adding, “You see what’s happened. I mean, you have many religious groups have been complaining about that. They’ve been complaining about it for a long time.”

Sensing an opening, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz jumped at the chance to upstage the far-and-away front-runner.

The Florida senator said he’ll release his returns on Friday or Saturday. “And there's nothing really that interesting in them,” Rubio said. “So I have no problem releasing them. And luckily I'm not being audited this year, or last year, for that matter.”

Cruz also couldn’t resist. “So, I've released five years of tax returns already,” he said on the debate stage. “We will have two more years available tomorrow.”

The furor over Trump’s returns has been slowly building, with Trump on Feb. 14 telling “Face the Nation” that he would release the forms in “three, four months.”

The pressure intensified this week courtesy of Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential candidate who was forced by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to release details of his own taxes.

Romney told Fox News that he believes Trump was dragging his feet because his returns contain a “bombshell.”

Trump did not respond kindly, engaging in a Twitter war with the former Massachusetts governor, calling him a “fool” and a “dope.”

On Thursday night, Romney appeared to take pleasure in Trump’s spot on the hot seat. He encouraged Trump to release earlier returns no longer under audit “if scared.”

No legit reason @realDonaldTrump can't release returns while being audited, but if scared, release earlier returns no longer under audit. — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 26, 2016

.@realDonaldTrump taxes for last 4+ years are still being audited. There are more #bombshells or he would release them. — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 26, 2016





But Trump claims his returns will ultimately be underwhelming and won’t be nearly as damaging as Romney’s.

“You don't learn anything from a tax return,” Trump said Thursday night. “I will say this. Mitt Romney looked like a fool when he delayed and delayed and delayed and Harry Reid baited him and Mitt Romney didn't file until a month and a half before the election and it cost him big league.”

Brian Faler and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.