Clinton: If I'm president, nominees will have to release their tax returns

Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns has broken decades of tradition of both sides of the aisle. On Monday, Hillary Clinton vowed that if she becomes president, Trump will be the last major party nominee to keep his taxes largely under wraps.

“If I’m fortunate enough to be president, we’re going to pass a law requiring anybody who is a nominee of a major, national party to have to release their taxes," Clinton said on the stump in Akron, Ohio.


In fact, Democrats on Capitol Hill already have such a bill . Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Presidential Tax Transparency Act in May, which requires a nominee of a major political party to file their three most recent tax returns with the Federal Election Commission.

Trump has said that he cannot release his federal tax returns because of a routine and ongoing Internal Revenue Service audit. While experts have disputed whether such a review precludes him from releasing, Clinton has said that Trump should release any returns not covered by an audit.

The former star of NBC’s Apprentice has only forked over his tax information during very limited windows like regulatory back-and-forths over his casinos or lawsuits.

But that changed over the weekend, when The New York Times published a blockbuster report featuring snippets of Trump’s 1995 return that showed losses of $916 million that year, which may have allowed him to avoid paying personal income tax for up to 18 years.

Trump — in a sentiment echoed by his surrogates — have said that if the real estate mogul did not pay taxes it’s another sign that the New Yorker is a business "genius."