Taxes and Transparency

But, in 2012, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and onetime chief executive of a private equity firm, is still hedging about whether he will do so.

Candidates for the presidency are not legally required to release their tax records, but they generally have for many years now — because American voters have a right to know how the men and women who want to be president make their money.

As recently as last month, Mr. Romney was refusing to make his income tax returns public should he become the nominee, much less allow voters to see them before Saturday’s primary in South Carolina. “I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t,” Mr. Romney told Chuck Todd of NBC News in December.

But public pressure to release his tax records may finally be getting through to the Republican front-runner. On Monday night, during a debate in South Carolina, Mr. Romney said, “If that has been the tradition, I’m not opposed to doing that.” But, he added, “Time will tell.” He also said, “I’ll keep that open.” Then he said he “probably” would do it only if he became the nominee.

There is no “if” about the tradition. President Obama released eight years’ worth of tax returns when he pursued his party’s nomination four years ago. He has already made public his complete return for 2010, as well as other tax filings since he took office, as presidents of both parties have done for decades.

On the Republican side, only Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has been as forthcoming. For years, Governor Perry has routinely made his tax filing public. At least Newt Gingrich has said he plans to release his returns on Thursday.

Mr. Romney’s insistence on secrecy is impossible to defend now that he appears to be closing in on the nomination and questions have intensified about his personal finances and record as a venture capitalist. The financial disclosure required of presidential candidates is more limited than the detailed information contained in tax returns.

It is not too much to ask someone seeking the nation’s highest office to sacrifice some personal privacy to reassure voters that they have no hidden entanglements.

And this is not the only place where secrecy has been a problem. Unlike Mr. Obama or John McCain, or George W. Bush in earlier contests, this year’s presidential hopefuls have refused to identify the “bundlers” who reel in many hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions for their campaigns, disclosing only those bundlers who are registered lobbyists, as the law requires.

Sarah Palin got it right last week when she supported calls for Mr. Romney to release recent tax returns before the South Carolina vote, along with information bearing on his record at Bain Capital, the private equity firm. Mr. Romney also can look to his own father, George. He released a dozen years of tax returns when he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 1968, leading Richard Nixon to follow suit.