Flunking the Sunshine Primary

Presidential contenders should release their tax returns.

IT'S NOT LEGALLY required, but it has become customary for presidential candidates to release their income tax returns in addition to the mandated financial disclosure forms. Unfortunately, this tradition of openness is at risk.

Among the candidates, only Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) have released their returns -- and most of the others haven't committed to follow suit. North Carolina Democrat John Edwards is avoiding the issue, saying he has gotten an extension on filing his taxes so there's nothing yet to disclose. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said through a spokesman that, "like past presidential candidates," she will "release tax information in the election year." Better late than never, but, according to WSJ.com, at this point in the last campaign, Howard Dean, Joseph I. Lieberman and Mr. Edwards had released at least some information about their taxes; John F. Kerry released his tax returns in December. On the Republican side, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who kept his tax filings private during his gubernatorial and Senate races, says he hasn't made a final decision; neither has Rudolph W. Giuliani, who made his returns public while serving as New York mayor, or Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Making tax returns public is, no doubt, an imposition on a candidate's privacy -- but choosing to run for president means relinquishing privacy in all sorts of areas. It has become a given that presidents and vice presidents release their tax filings. Financial disclosure forms provide some important details, but they disclose the value of assets or the amount of income only within broad ranges, and with notable gaps. In addition, tax returns provide insights and information that is not available elsewhere, such as use of tax shelters or the amount and kind of charitable contributions. Mr. Giuliani's tax returns from his days as mayor showed contributions to Planned Parenthood. Vice President Cheney, who released 10 years worth of tax returns when he was selected as the nominee in 2000, came under criticism for giving just 1 percent of his income to charity.

We objected in 1984 when vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro balked at making her husband's tax returns public, and again in the 2004 campaign when Democratic nominee John F. Kerry did the same with his wife's filings. In both cases, the candidates relented. That was a somewhat harder call in the case of Teresa Heinz Kerry, who inherited a fortune from her late husband and complained that releasing her separately filed returns infringed not only on her privacy but on that of their children.

For candidates themselves, though, disclosure isn't a close question. There is no excuse for any of the presidential contenders to decline to release their returns. Voters should take note.