NY State Closing the Double-Jeapardy Loophole

[robkelk]

The Yale Law Journal has an intriguing (and technical) article about this very matter:
Can New York Publish President Trump’s State Tax Returns?

Trump said during a Republican primary debate: “I will absolutely give my returns, but I’m being audited now for two or three years, so I can’t do it until the audit is finished, obviously.” Yet President Nixon disclosed his tax returns while under audit, and there is no rule against doing so.

Trump’s New York State tax returns will not contain all of the information that might be found in his federal filings, but they contain much of it. Most significantly, they will reveal the income that he reports from all sources, the deductions that he claims, and the amounts he has paid to New York State and New York City. Disclosure of those returns will reveal whether Trump has been contributing to the cost of state and local services enjoyed by himself, his family, and his businesses.

The proposal for disclosure of the President’s state tax returns is distinct from the suggestion that states pass laws requiring presidential candidates to release their federal returns as a condition for appearing on those states’ 2020 ballots. The proposals are not mutually exclusive, but disclosure of the President’s state tax returns has important advantages over the ballot access approach. First, disclosure of the President’s state tax returns could occur immediately, whereas a ballot access law would not require Trump to disclose his returns until 2020. Second, some of the states that might plausibly pass a ballot access law are states that President Trump lost by a landslide in 2016 and stands little chance of winning in 2020. President Trump might decide to keep his name off of those states’ ballots rather than disclosing his returns. A state tax return disclosure law, by contrast, could be passed by President Trump’s home state of New York and would be effective regardless of where he decides to compete in 2020.

(An obvious reference to the bill in New Jersey.)

I conclude that on the best reading of existing precedents and statutes, federal law does not prevent New York from enacting state tax transparency legislation along the lines of the proposed bill.