Pence to release tax returns, Trump to follow -- eventually

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said in an interview today he would release his tax returns this week but that Donald Trump had not budged from a plan that might see his own kept under wraps until after election day.
"Donald Trump and I are both going to release our tax returns," Pence, the Indiana governor, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'll be releasing mine in the next week. Donald Trump will be releasing his tax returns at the completion of an audit."
When the NBC interviewer suggested that the audit -- by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) -- might not be completed until after the November 8 election, Pence replied only, "We'll see."

The release of such returns has been a tradition of American presidential politics for a half-century, and Democrat Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine have already released theirs.
But Trump has deferred, saying he cannot release his until the IRS completes its audit. That agency has said Trump is free to release the returns whenever he wants.
His failure to do so has fueled speculation that he fears some embarrassing revelation: perhaps that his fortune is far smaller than the USD 10 billion he speaks of, that he has donated far less to charities than he suggests, or that he has awkwardly close business ties to Russian interests.

Clinton's returns, released last month, showed she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had adjusted gross income of USD 10.6 million last year, placing them at the very top of American households. Kaine and his wife had income of USD 313,000.

Trump's campaign has said his wealth is "in excess of USD 10 billion," and he has tied his populist pitch to his acumen as a successful businessman and leader.
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"I think people can count on the fact that
President-elect Donald Trump, when he raises his right hand, is going to walk into the Oval Office and he's going to become a champion for Americans on the world stage," Pence said.

Trump, he noted, has already been working with the people on the Hill to reduce tax.
"The president-elect has already got our team working on Capitol Hill to make sure that we're reducing taxes. We're going to lower the corporate tax rate, repeal and replace ObamaCare. We're going to roll back, starting on day one, this avalanche of red tape and regulations that's crushing American jobs," he said.
"President-elect is committed to changing America's trade. We're going to renegotiate NAFTA. He's already made that clear. Got an agreement from President Pena Nieto to do just that," he said.
"He's going to put on the table all the tools that are going to take away the advantages of companies that for far too long have been pulling up stakes, leaving American workers behind and then creating products, shipping them back into the (US)," he added.