Protesters press Trump to release taxes

20 arrested in California pro and anti-Trump rallies

CHICAGO, April 16, (AP): Thousands of sign-waving, chanting protesters marched through streets across America demanding that President Donald Trump release his tax returns so the public can examine his business ties and determine whether he has links to foreign powers.

The tax day protests in more than a dozen cities Saturday were largely peaceful, though occasionally demonstrators and some pro-Trump groups taunted each other in face-to-face exchanges.

In Berkeley, California, police arrested at least 20 people after fist fighting erupted at separate unrelated rallies at a park where about 200 people for or against Trump gathered. Officers confiscated knives and makeshift weapons.

The demonstrations came just days before Tuesday’s deadline for taxpayers to file their returns. Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his tax returns, saying it was because he was under audit. He later said that voters don’t care.

But 71-year-old Ilene Singh said he’s wrong. She rode a bus from New Jersey to New York City with her friend Geraldine Markowitz, 83, to take part in protests. “We’re here to say we care,” said Singh.

Pushing her walker, Karin Arlin, 85, a Holocaust survivor who came to the US from Germany when she was 9, said she’s also worried about the direction of the country.

“You don’t know which way the country goes,” said Arlin next to her 89-year-old husband who fled Czechoslovakia during World War II. “I hope Republicans see it.”

Suspect

Protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina, said they suspect that Trump’s returns might show he has paid little or nothing to the government he now heads, or that he was indebted to Russian, Chinese or other foreign interests.

“His reputation ... as a businessman and, more importantly, as a true American, a person who is concerned with American values, would be totally destroyed if all his financial information was made public,” said Mike Mannshardt, a retired teacher.

One of Trump’s sharpest critics in the House spoke to protesters at the US Capitol just before they set off on a march to the National Mall in Washington, DC Democratic Rep Maxine Waters, of California, said there’s nothing to prevent Trump from releasing his income taxes and that “the simple truth is he’s got a lot to hide.”

“If he thinks he can get away with playing king, he’s got another thought coming,” Waters said. WASHINGTON, April 16, (AP): As Tax Day approaches, show some love for the good people who live in the nation’s capital.

Washington, that swampy den of iniquity that politicians love to scorn, sends the most tax dollars per person to the US government. By a lot. Last year, the District of Columbia paid Uncle Sam $37,000 per person in federal income, payroll and estate taxes. The next closest was Delaware, at $16,000 per person.

“It’s where the money is,” said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center. “The reason the District pays so much in taxes is that there are a lot of high-income people there.”

Washington is an outlier because, despite years of lobbying, it is not a state. It doesn’t even have a vote in Congress. It is, however, a city with a relatively high cost of living.

West Virginia, Mississippi and New Mexico have low median household incomes, which helps explain why they their residents pay far less in federal taxes. West Virginia paid $3,600 per person last year, while Mississippi paid $3,900 per person and New Mexico residents paid a little more than $4,000.

The Associated Press calculated each state’s per-capita tax bill using data from the IRS and population estimates from the Census Bureau.

The deadline to file federal tax returns is Tuesday. It was pushed back because the usual April 15 deadline was Saturday, and because Monday is a holiday in the District of Columbia.

The IRS says millions of taxpayers have yet to file their returns. As they

Nancy Traver, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who was at the Washington march said, “Every president, Democratic and Republican for years has showed, has revealed his tax returns, so why shouldn’t Trump?”

For four decades, presidents and major party nominees have released some of their tax returns, with the exception of Gerald Ford. Trump’s break with precedent has raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Democrats are pushing for a vote on a bill from Rep Anna Eshoo, a Democrat from California, which would require the president and all major-party nominees to publicly disclose their previous three years of tax returns with the Office of Government Ethics or the Federal Election Commission.

Meanwhile, Trump says “someone should look into who paid” for the rallies around the country Saturday that urged him to release his tax returns.

Trump tweeted Sunday: “I did what do, they shouldn’t feel too bad for DC residents.

The nation’s capital gets a good return on its tax investment. For every dollar the District sends to the federal government, it gets back almost $4, according to a 2015 study by the New York state comptroller.

For years, the late Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., would document that New York paid more to the federal government than it got back. In 2015, the state’s comptroller took up the cause.

Washington’s rate of return is higher than any state — most of it comes from wages for federal employees. The closest state is Mississippi, which gets back $2.57 in federal spending for every dollar it sends to Washington. New Mexico, West Virginia and Alabama are also big winners when it comes to federal taxes and spending.

These states are big takers because they have a lot of residents who get federal benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability benefits and food stamps.

“They have lower incomes so they pay less in taxes and, because they have lower incomes, they get more federal aid,” said Morgan Scarboro, a policy analyst at the Tax Foundation.

So why do so many of these states that benefit from the federal government produce conservative politicians who complain that the government is too big?

“There is this perception that so much money is being spent on things that don’t benefit them,” Williams said. “They ignore the things that do benefit them.”

was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?”

Trump was the first major-party nominee in more than 40 years not to release his returns and he reneged on a campaign commitment to release them. He said they were being audited.

“Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over,” he tweeted.

Trump has said that voters don’t care about his tax returns.

But many demonstrators said they hoped Saturday’s marches would convince Trump otherwise.

“We do care. We want to see his taxes,” said Ann Demerlis, who was among hundreds who marched in Philadelphia from City Hall to an area in front of historic Independence Hall, carrying signs and chanting “We want your taxes now!”