When questioned at Thursday night’s GOP debate about why he hasn’t released his tax returns, Donald Trump said that he is in the middle of being audited and that he would release them when it was over. He also said that he had been audited for the last 12 years—something far from normal, according to one former IRS agent.
“If the IRS examines your tax return and finds no issues they will not audit your return again for two years,” Alan Olsen, managing partner of accounting firm Greenstein Rogoff Olsen & Co., told Bloomberg. “If returns are properly prepared, the IRS typically goes away.”
Thus, he said, it would be “very unusual” for the IRS to audit Trump 12 years straight.
Mitt Romney, who suggested there could be a ‘bombshell’ in his tax returns, tweeted during the debate that there’s no reason he couldn’t release them even during an audit.
No legit reason @realDonaldTrump can't release returns while being audited, but if scared, release earlier returns no longer under audit.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 26, 2016