Why do Presidents release tax returns? We can thank Richard Nixon.

[pnwmom]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2011/0418/Tax-Day-2011-Why-do-presidents-release-tax-returns-Hint-I-am-not-a

He himself first steered attention to his taxes by boasting at a September press conference that he’d been audited by the IRS and found clean. Reporters started digging and, long story short, he had paid Uncle Sam less than $6,000 on an aggregate income of $790,000 from 1970 through 1972.

He’d taken big deductions for donating his vice-presidential papers to charity and for interest on the mortgage for his San Clemente house, among other things. The public was outraged.

“Nixon’s taxes were an issue that average citizens readily understood as compared to the constitutional issues raised by the Watergate investigation,” concluded University of Alabama tax professor William Samson, in a 2005 analysis of the returns.

SNIP

So in April 1976, at the start of his own reelection campaign, Mr. Ford publicly released his 1975 return. He’d paid $94,569 in taxes on an income of $204,606. After he was elected, Jimmy Carter followed suit, and so has every president since, as well as numerous vice presidents and other top US politicians.

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/cf7c9c870b600b9585256df80075b9dd/f8723e3606cd79ec85256ff6006f82c3?OpenDocument

Thus, Nixon made the September 5 announcement about the results of the IRS audit as a way of presenting some good news to show the public that his taxes and finances were beyond reproach because an investigation by the IRS had found nothing. By inference, he was trying to say that a Watergate investigation would also be a waste of time because he had nothing to hide.

SNIP

In the months that followed the Agnew resignation, a more aggressive press began to demand more details about Nixon's taxes. The press revealed Nixon's 1970 return showed a presidential salary of $200,000, yet federal income tax was less than $1,000.

SNIP

With a top federal income tax rate of 70 percent at the time, many were amazed how someone with such an enormous ability to pay tax could almost completely escape taxation. With the Watergate story unfolding, American confidence in government again was shaken. A Wall Street Journal editorial on November 13 spoke to the heart of the issue:

• It does seem unseemly that the President of the United States should almost completely escape taxation. Since he is in some way supposed to set a national example, a case can be made that he ought to bend over backward to make sure his taxes are not too low.

The editorial then called for a strengthening of the minimum tax to close loopholes. The editorial concluded with:
•
There is a great deal to be said for it [the minimum tax] on the basis of simple equity. Considering what the average citizen pays, a President earning $200,000 should pay more than a few hundred dollars in tax. And so should anyone else earning $200,000.

[Skinner]

1. Can you imagine the Wall Street Journal writing this today?

"It does seem unseemly that the President of the United States should almost completely escape taxation. Since he is in some way supposed to set a national example, a case can be made that he ought to bend over backward to make sure his taxes are not too low."

[pnwmom]

2. No, I can't. It's very dispiriting to realize how low we've sunk since then.

It feels as if Richard Nixon won, in the long run. He convinced everybody that every politician SHOULD be a crook.