Rumsfeld: ‘I know I don’t know’ if my tax return was done accurately

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld filed his taxes on Tuesday with an added twist: a letter telling the IRS that he had no idea whether his return was, in fact, accurate.

{mosads}“Despite the fact that I am a college graduate and I try hard to make sure our tax returns are accurate…I know that I do not know whether or not my tax returns are accurate, which is a sad commentary on governance in our nation’s capital,” Rumsfeld’s letter reads.

The letter’s phrasing appears to allude to Rumsfeld’s famous “unknown unknowns” statement in 2002, when he said, in reference to Iraqi weapons programs, that “there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

The letter was revealed via a tweet Rumsfeld sent out Tuesday afternoon with a picture of the letter.

That I & most Americans have no idea whether our taxes are accurate tells us something. My annual letter to the #IRS: pic.twitter.com/BFh0AXTvAk

— Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) April 15, 2014

Rumsfeld’s letter expresses hope that the U.S. will reform its tax code to be simpler “at some point in my lifetime, and I am now in my 80s, so there are not many years left.”

Tax reform has been a major issue in recent years on Capitol Hill, with several representatives and interest groups pushing for the tax code to be simplified with lower rates but fewer deductions.