Trump, His Alleged Audit, and What the IRS Can or Cannot Reveal?

(a) Returns and return information
(1) Federal employees and other persons

It shall be unlawful for any officer or employee of the United States or any person described in section 6103(n) (or an officer or employee of any such person), or any former officer or employee, willfully to disclose to any person, except as authorized in this title, any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)). Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable upon conviction by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution, and if such offense is committed by any officer or employee of the United States, he shall, in addition to any other punishment, be dismissed from office or discharged from employment upon conviction for such offense.
(2) State and other employees

It shall be unlawful for any person (not described in paragraph (1)) willfully to disclose to any person, except as authorized in this title, any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) acquired by him or another person under subsection (d), (i)(1)(C), (3)(B)(i), or (7)(A)(ii), (k)(10), (l)(6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (12), (15), (16), (19), (20), or (21) or (m)(2), (4), (5), (6), or (7) of section 6103 or under section 6104(c). Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.
(3) Other persons

It shall be unlawful for any person to whom any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) is disclosed in a manner unauthorized by this title thereafter willfully to print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return information. Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.
(4) Solicitation

It shall be unlawful for any person willfully to offer any item of material value in exchange for any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b)) and to receive as a result of such solicitation any such return or return information. Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.

What seems to be uniform in the discussion surrounding Trump’s tax returns is the conviction that they are definitely hiding something. Why else would the returns be kept private, if not to conceal something damning or uncouth? (Trump’s own excuse, that he can’t release his returns because he is under audit, has been roundly dismissed by tax and ethics experts, as well as the IRS.)
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But the problem with using the tax returns as a symbol for all of Trump’s corruption is that the returns themselves may be less than earth shattering. This is, at least, what seems to be suggested by the scattered documents that have been made public thus far.
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For Democrats, the tax returns issue is a useful political tool to generate bad headlines and stymie tax reform. But the left’s broader hope for the tax returns is that they contain information damning enough to Donald Trump that it would force his removal from power. The idea seems to be that Trump has been largely insincere in his public, political life, but that his tax returns will expose his real, unaffected nefariousness. But unless the returns show direct bank deposits from Vladimir Putin, they would likely never be sufficient to crater his base support or lead Republicans in Congress to abandon him.

Contrary to what Blickers would think, unless someone also releases W-2's, tax form do not source money, just totals it. I do not recall my last 1040 having a box marked "Money from Russia?"

I'm asking if the IRS can reveal that they are auditing Trump and have been long before Trump became president. Or is the IRS under some kind of legal clause (as stated in my OP or if there is another clause somewhere) that forbids them from revealing the fact they are in that exact legal process.

Usual frontrunner, FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor, was not hosted by O’Reilly on Friday; Monday through Thursday, The O’Reilly Factor bested Maddow by about 30K viewers in the 25-54 age bracket.

Maddow’s show logged 2.62 million total viewers last week; 624K of them in the news demo. (CNN averaged 1.2 million total viewers and 402K news demo viewers in the slot, and FNC did 2.64 total viewers and 548K viewers aged 25-54). It was Maddow’s best total viewer showing since October 27, 2008. In the news demo, it was her best showing since October 10, 2016.

You're having a laugh with this right?

It has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with Papa Bear O'Reilly.

Rachel Maddow, the dominant voice for progressives on cable news, may be benefiting the most from the Trump administration’s first 100 days. Q1 2017 was the most-watched quarter ever for Maddow’s show. While the quarter was significant for Maddow, the month of March was even more noteworthy. Her program ranked No. 1 across cable news among adults 25-54. MSNBC had never scored a 9 p.m. monthly win over Fox News among adults 25-54 in network history until this past month. Not only was March 2017 Maddow’s best month ever from a ratings perspective, but it provided MSNBC with its best monthly audience delivery for any program in the network’s 20-year history.