What's In Trump's Returns? A Look At How He Plays Tax Game

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump told The Associated Press this week "there's nothing to learn" from all those income tax returns he won't release until an ongoing audit wraps up. Tax experts say the feet-high stack of returns that he's posed with for photos could provide significant insights about the presumptive GOP nominee — new details on his income and wealth, how much he gives to charity, the health of his businesses and, overall, how Trump plays the tax game. On a press release with his financial disclosure form released last year, for example, Trump put his 2014 income at $362 million, excluding certain items like interest and dividends. Depending on how it's reported, a significantly smaller income figure on Trump's Form 1040 than on his financial disclosure could be a fresh sign that his personal fortune, too, is less than the "more than $10 billion by any stretch of the imagination" that he's claimed. Tax experts say he might even have owed no income taxes in one or more recent years by using real estate depreciation provisions and carrying forward business operating losses from previous years. According to documents unearthed by Johnston, Trump in 1977 made $118,530 and paid $42,386 in taxes; in 1978 reported negative income of $406,379 and paid nothing, and in 1979 reported negative income of $3.4 million and again paid no taxes. In response to a question about whether Trump had paid no taxes in recent years and how long the negative tax liability of the late '70s continued, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks emailed: "You must be kidding, that is more than 35 years ago when we had an entirely different tax system." Tax returns could reveal whether Trump has gotten a whopper of a tax break by promising not to build luxury houses that he never seemed interested in building to begin with. Tax attorneys say that by making a formal pledge to a land conservancy that he will never to develop homes there, Trump could be entitled to a sizable tax deduction for the golf easement. [...] Trump's tax return could tell how much income they made, offering fresh information about the financial health of his organization, according to Robert Kovacev, a lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson and former Justice Department Tax Division official who represents taxpayers in high-profile tax disputes with the IRS. GOP 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, in a Facebook post Wednesday urging the release of Trump's returns, suggested all sorts of possibilities: "While not a likely circumstance, the potential for hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or other unsavory groups is simply too great a risk to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commander in chief," he wrote.