Bloomberg on demands to release tax returns: ‘I can’t just go to TurboTax’

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg on Wednesday said the reason he had not yet released his tax returns is because of their complexity.

“It just takes us a long time,” he said. “I can’t go to TurboTax.”

Bloomberg contended that his returns are thousands of pages long, and noted that he had released his returns as mayor.

He promised to release the returns “in a few weeks.”

President Trump’s refusal to release his own tax return, breaking with decades of tradition, has been a bugaboo for Democrats since the 2016 election, prompting lawsuits, court rulings, House investigations and allegations of corruption.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) joked that she and her husband probably could use the tax software TuboTax, but said the issue at hand was transparency.

“Everyone up here has released their tax returns, mayor. And it is a major issue because the president of the United States has been hiding behind his tax returns, even when courts order him to come forward with those tax returns,” she said.

Bloomberg said he had only been in the race for 10 weeks and needed more time.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) shot back that he should work “overtime and get it done.”