The Smart Person’s Guide to Paying Taxes

Three years after he resigned from the White House, Richard Nixon offered this advice: “Make sure you pay your taxes.” He had refused to make his tax returns public during his two successful presidential runs. Then, in his second term, Congress looked into his filings amid suspicions raised about his deductions. “I am not a crook,” he declared, but the inquiry concluded he owed almost half a million dollars. Ultimately, the Watergate scandal, which broke just before the tax controversy, forced him to quit in 1974.

Since then, every major party presidential nominee—except Gerald Ford—has volunteered at least one tax return to buttress claims of civic responsibility and rectitude. The disclosures have become stingier in recent years—culminating in Donald Trump’s complete refusal to release his (he says he’s being audited and will do so once the IRS is done). But the snippets we’ve gleaned from the most recent Republican nominees—including Trump—offer lessons in how obscure tax planning strategies benefit the well-to-do, yet are mostly out of ordinary Americans’ reach.