Professor Ventry Comments on Trump Tax Returns for Tax Analysts

Professor Dennis Ventry commented for Tax Analysts on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's unwillingness to release publicly his tax returns.  Trump has said that he cannot release any tax information because the Internal Revenue Service is auditing him, but tax experts including Professor Ventry have pointed out that an IRS audit would not prevent such a release.

"He can share his own tax return information with whomever he wants, whenever he wants. But he doesn't want to share it with anyone. Not now. Not ever. Why?" Ventry said. "Because presumably they contain the same kind of sophisticated, expensive, and only-available-to-the-rich kind of tax planning that, according to polls, infuriates average taxpayers across the political spectrum. In other words, voters would see that he's not the outsider he claims to be."

Professor Ventry is an expert in tax policy and legal ethics. His research interests include tax expenditure analysis, family taxation, professional responsibility and standards of care, tax filing and administration, tax compliance, public finance, and tax and legal history. In addition, he was recently added as a co-author on the casebook, Federal Income Taxation with Paul McDaniel, Martin McMahon, Jr., and Daniel L. Simmons.