US Erection 12 *AND* 16 *AND* 20 *AND* 22 *AND* 24 *AND* Beyond

[Per]

Since 1976 every presidential candidate has released their taxes. Except Trump.
Trump is fighting the release of his taxes in court.

I don’t know... guess he must have something to hide.

[Chef Boi RD]

If he’s got nothing to hide then what’s the problem?

[Per]

If he’s got nothing to hide then what’s the problem?

Exactly.

It all seems very fishy. Especially for a Swede.

Our tax filings are considered public by law, so anyone cancontact the tax authorities and ask for printouts of what their neighbours or uncle or some celebrity filed. There’s a minor fee, like USD 3 or something, but no biggie. Local papers like to get printouts and make lists of who earned the most in your town, etc.

So someone going to court to block that their tax filings are released.... Yeah, they must be hiding something really bad.

[rats19]

I’d rather see the tax returns of civil servants who became millionaires than a billionaire who has become a civil servant

[Topper]

If he’s got nothing to hide then what’s the problem?

Exactly.

It all seems very fishy. Especially for a Swede.

Our tax filings are considered public by law, so anyone cancontact the tax authorities and ask for printouts of what their neighbours or uncle or some celebrity filed. There’s a minor fee, like USD 3 or something, but no biggie. Local papers like to get printouts and make lists of who earned the most in your town, etc.

So someone going to court to block that their tax filings are released.... Yeah, they must be hiding something really bad.

The logic of Big Brother totalitarian state

[Strangelove]

I’d rather see the tax returns of civil servants who became millionaires than a billionaire who has become a civil servant

HA!

Never in the history of mankind has so much time and money been spent digging up major dirt on someone with so little success.

[Cornuck]

Never in the history of mankind has so much time and money been spent digging up major dirt on someone with so little success.

Sounds like you're talking about John Gotti.... how did that work out in the end?

[Strangelove]

Never in the history of mankind has so much time and money been spent digging up major dirt on someone with so little success.

Sounds like you're talking about John Gotti.... how did that work out in the end?

[Topper]

Never in the history of mankind has so much time and money been spent digging up major dirt on someone with so little success.

Sounds like you're talking about John Gotti.... how did that work out in the end?

they found a tumour

[Per]

If he’s got nothing to hide then what’s the problem?

Exactly.

It all seems very fishy. Especially for a Swede.

Our tax filings are considered public by law, so anyone cancontact the tax authorities and ask for printouts of what their neighbours or uncle or some celebrity filed. There’s a minor fee, like USD 3 or something, but no biggie. Local papers like to get printouts and make lists of who earned the most in your town, etc.

So someone going to court to block that their tax filings are released.... Yeah, they must be hiding something really bad.

The logic of Big Brother totalitarian state

Actually quite the opposite. It goes back to our freedom of information act of 1766 that says every citizen has a right to see all government documents. There are a few exceptions, regarding eg national security and personal integrity, but the basic idea is to prevent backroom deals and authoritarian tendencies. There was a big shift in power between the king and parliament in the 18th century, and this was part of it.

So, anyway, the tax authorities being part of government, any citizen can demand to see any document they send, produce or receive, and tax filings fall in that category.

This is an example of individual citizens having a right to control what the government does.
It’s the opposite of Big Brother.

[Topper]

Since you are not doing anything wrong then you won't mind us installing these cameras and microphones.

Here and in the US, tax returns are confidential and private. Why waive that right of privacy?

Canada's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that insurance companies can not require or gain access to genetic testing data of their clients. Once again, a right of privacy. This regarding medical records.

[Per]

Since you are not doing anything wrong then you won't mind us installing these cameras and microphones.

Here and in the US, tax returns are confidential and private. Why waive that right of privacy?

Canada's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that insurance companies can not require or gain access to genetic testing data of their clients. Once again, a right of privacy. This regarding medical records.

Yeah, anything medical is protected here as well.
That’s one of the exceptions to the freedom of information act.

And we’re very strict on cameras in public places. Anything happens in France or Britain, they have footage from a zillion surveillance cameras helping them track every move of the culprits.

Here? Zilch. Nada. They are very restrictive on stores and restaurants having cameras, and if they somehow manage to get a permit, the cameras must be directed in a way that they do not show anything outside the store. We had our car broken into at the parking lot outside a shopping mall, just across from a gas station. So when we reported it, I asked if there wasn’t any camera there, but no. Nothing covering the parking lot.

[Chef Boi RD]

CLINTON: "So you gotta ask yourself -- why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he is not as rich as he says he has. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don't know all of his business dealings but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about six hundred and fifty million dollars to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he does not want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he has paid nothing in federal taxes because the only years that anybody has ever seen for a couple of years where he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license. And they showed he did not pay any federal income tax.”

TRUMP: "That makes me smart“

[5thhorseman]

This is an example of individual citizens having a right to control what the government does.
It’s the opposite of Big Brother.

Sorry Per, you're very logical and all, but income tax returns are not something a government "does". It's something a private individual does. Hence Big Brotherish.

[Chef Boi RD]

In 1995, Trump declares a $916 million loss on his income tax returns. His business interests are taking a toll on his creditworthiness, and most “bankers on Wall Street became unwilling to lend him money due to what they termed ‘the Donald risk.’” He needs money, and turns to two sources: Deutsche Bank and Bayrock Group.

In 1990, the Trump Organization was reportedly $3.4 billion in debt, with Trump himself liable for over $800 million; the next year, as several of Trump’s hotels and casinos reportedly accumulated millions in debt, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission concluded, “Mr. Trump cannot be considered financially stable.” In 1992, Trump defaulted on the debt of his airline, Trump Shuttle, turning it over to U.S. Airways. Even as Trump broke ground on Trump World Tower in 1998, he was “renegotiating $1.8 billion in junk bonds for his Atlantic City resorts, and the tower was built on a mountain of debt owed to German banks.”

Compounding Trump’s financial problems was the Wall Street stigma his business failures attracted. The Guardian has reported that, in the 1990s, “Wall Street banks, which had previously extended him credit, turned off the tap;” according to The New York Times, bankers went so far as to coin the phrase “Donald risk” to describe the widespread aversion to lending to Trump

Amid these financial struggles, Trump turned to two notable sources of capital: Deutsche Bank and Bayrock Group. In 1998, Deutsche Bank provided Trump $125 million to renovate an office building at 40 Wall Street. More deals followed, with the bank providing or underwriting $1.3 billion to Trump entities over the next few years. Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank has not always been amicable; in November 2008, he had difficulty making payments on a $640 million Deutsch Bank loan – $40 million of which he guaranteed personally – he took out to finance the construction of the Trump tower in Chicago. He sued the bank for $3 billion, alleging it was partially responsible for the global financial crisis and, by extension, Trump’s inability to repay the loan (the case was ultimately settled). Trump’s connection to Deutsche Bank is particularly notable because the institution has been at the center of schemes to help Russians secretly funnel money offshore, for which it paid “about $630 million in penalties … over a $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York and London branches.”