So, today the big news is that, once again, the SCOTUS Hhas failed to come to the aid of Donald Trump in his quest to establish the supremacy of the Chief Executive. Although he has now returned to ordinary citizen status, the Congressional request to examine his tax returns from when he as President is not, I would argue. prompted by frivolous interest or personal animus, but by the Congressional assertion of legislative jurisdiction, similar to the SCOTUS interest in asserting judicial autonomy.

The Internal Revenue Service operates an enterprise to which residents voluntarily report their use of currency. If they use a very small amount, there is no need to report, but some federal distributions of currency are designed to prompt reports by promising “refunds” of currency collected by employers and forwarded to the Treasury unnecessarily.

The three trillion dollar “underground economy” causes consternation because taxes are not routinely forwarded to the Treasury. However, one of the reasons we have a general idea of this segments dimensions is because individual voluntarily report their annual income on their tax returns.

Now, while filing is voluntary, the return that is sent in requires a certification or pledge that the information is accurate according to the filers best knowledge. And that is what Trump has been hiding because his relationship to numbers is fleeting and what he submitted inaccurate.