Running Mates and Tax Returns
Tim Kaine has been hitting Donald Trump hard for failing to release his tax returns — and fairly so. From Kaine’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last night:
[D]oes anyone here believe that Donald Trump’s been paying his fair share of taxes? Do you believe he ought to release those tax returns like every other presidential candidate in modern history? Of course he should. Donald, what are you hiding?
Candidate tax returns are a convenient teaching tool — allowing tax professors to cover core concepts using real Form 1040s — and since I’ll be teaching introductory income taxation next year, I thought I would go online and find Kaine’s.
No such luck. A Google search for “tim kaine’s tax returns” turned up no hits. (Presumably that will change once this post is up and indexed by Google.) The Clinton campaign’s website has Hillary and Bill Clinton’s tax returns from 2007 to 2014, but not Kaine’s. As a senator, Kaine has filed financial disclosures reporting assets, liabilities, income, and gifts, but not taxes. I e-mailed the Clinton campaign’s press office this morning to ask for Kaine’s returns but have received no response (and, of course, the campaign’s press folks no doubt have better things to do than respond to random inquiries from assistant professors).
To be fair, past vice presidential candidates have not released their tax returns immediately upon nomination. Paul Ryan released his tax returns six days after being named as Mitt Romney’s running mate. Sarah Palin didn’t release hers until more than a month after her nomination. Joe Biden released his in 2008 roughly three weeks after receiving the VP nod. John Edwards took about two months before releasing his; Dick Cheney waited more than a month before releasing his in 2000 (though only the first two pages, not the separate schedules); and Joe Lieberman took more than a month as well.
So Kaine, who was nominated six days ago, isn’t dilatory by historical standards (and if he released his returns today, he would be keeping pace with Paul Ryan). Still, if Kaine is going to be the Clinton campaign’s point person on Trump’s tax returns, then for the sake of consistency he should disclose his too — and now.
[Update (July 31–2:20pm CT): Still no word of when Kaine’s tax returns will be released, though Kaine repeated his criticism of Trump for not releasing his tax returns at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Saturday.]
[Addendum: For presidential tax returns dating back to FDR, see the invaluable Tax History Project maintained by Tax Analysts’ Joseph Thorndike.]
