--- title: Donald Trump Tax Returns Important to Voters, Poll Finds description: 62% of voters say it's somewhat important or very important that tax returns get released canonical: https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-29T17:14:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:41.695Z article:section: Politics og:title: Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll og:description: Hillary Clinton already has og:url: https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt255450ff857dbb2c/6988a40b0b72e32aa16ead12/gettyimages-596414680.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Attends Joni Ernst's Annual Roast And Ride In Des Moines og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll twitter:description: Hillary Clinton already has twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt255450ff857dbb2c/6988a40b0b72e32aa16ead12/gettyimages-596414680.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Aug 29, 2016 5:14 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the 2nd annual Joni Ernst Roast and Ride event on August 27, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. Stephen Maturen—Getty Images Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the 2nd annual Joni Ernst Roast and Ride event on August 27, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. Stephen Maturen—Getty ImagesStephen Maturen—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Aug 29, 2016 5:14 PM UTC A new poll shows over half of voters think it’s a least somewhat important that presidential candidates release their tax returns, signaling voters want to see what [Donald Trump’s returns reveal](http://time.com/4329187/donald-trump-taxes-bombshell/?iid=sr-link1). A new [Monmouth University poll](http://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/) shows 62% of voters think it’s either very important or somewhat important to them that candidates release their returns; some 54%of Clinton supporters think it’s very important. Thirty-six percent of voters, however, say it’s not important. It’s worth noting, too, that nearly three-fourths of voters, 72%, know Trump hasn’t yet released his returns, but only 56% of voters know that Clinton has released hers. Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has been calling for Trump to release his tax returns, a customary practice among presidential nominees, since early in the general election season. But Trump hasn’t budged, saying he won’t release his returns while he’s under audit. According to the poll, many voters question Trump’s reasoning with 52% speculating the returns show something the candidate may not want voters to know. Only 24% of voters believe the audit is holding him back. Clinton also faced scrutiny from voters over reports that she met with Clinton Foundation donors during her time as Secretary of State. Fifty-four percent of voters believe donors to her family’s nonprofit were given special treatment. The new Monmouth poll shows voters have highly unfavorable opinions of both party nominees, with 35% of voters saying they do not have a favorable opinion of either candidate. Hillary Clinton is viewed slightly less unfavorably than Trump (34% have a favorable opinion of her compared to 26% for Trump), though 51% of voters do not like her. Fifty-seven percent of voters do not like Trump. The poll still shows Clinton with a slight lead over Trump with 46% of likely voters saying they’ll cast their ballots for the former Secretary of State in November and 39% saying they’ll back Trump. The poll shows a slight drop in the 13-point lead Clinton had earlier in August. The Monmouth University poll was conducted via telephone between Aug. 25 and Aug. 28; 802 registered voters were interviewed and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/"},"headline":"Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll","datePublished":"2016-08-29T17:14:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:41.695Z","description":"Hillary Clinton already has","url":"https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Polls","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt255450ff857dbb2c/6988a40b0b72e32aa16ead12/gettyimages-596414680.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt255450ff857dbb2c/6988a40b0b72e32aa16ead12/gettyimages-596414680.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Attends Joni Ernst's Annual Roast And Ride In Des Moines","caption":"Donald Trump Attends Joni Ernst's Annual Roast And Ride In Des Moines","creditText":"Stephen Maturen—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4470908/donald-trump-tax-returns-poll/","name":"Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll"}}]}] ```