This House would require all candidates for high office to release a decade of tax returns.

civic

Norm-violation by recent U.S. presidents reopened the question of whether the precedent needs to be legislated. Other democracies have done both; mandated, and trusted-norm.

Background

Every US presidential candidate from Nixon (1973) to Romney (2012) voluntarily released tax returns. Trump broke the norm in 2016 and the precedent has not reset. California passed AB 690 in 2019 requiring presidential candidates to release five years of returns to appear on the primary ballot; the Supreme Court struck it down 9-0 (Patterson v. Padilla, 2020). At the federal level only constitutional amendment, not statute, could mandate disclosure. Other democracies (Norway, Sweden, Finland) publish all citizens' tax records; a different model entirely.

Government opens with

Tax returns are the cheapest available disclosure of conflicts of interest at scale.

Opposition responds with

Mandatory disclosure pushes candidates toward complex shielding structures, getting the OPPOSITE of transparency.