Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden visited a senior center in Portland Friday to highlight a bill that would force all presidential candidates to release their tax returns.
There are 40 years of tradition among candidates of both political parties to release their tax returns. Wyden told a group of seniors citizens that tradition now needs the backing of law.
“Seems to me we’d all want to know whether a presidential candidate supports the charitable sector," he said. "I think we’re also going to wonder whether a candidate abuses loopholes at the expense of hard working middle class folks. Is money kept offshore? So to get these answers, the bill I propose is pretty simple."
The bill would require candidates to release their returns within 15 days of being chosen by their party, or the returns would be released by the treasury.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump says he can’t release his tax returns because they’re being audited.
The IRS has said there’s nothing in the law preventing someone who’s being audited from making a tax return public.
Copyright 2016 Oregon Public Broadcasting
