Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Trump's income taxes were often paltry, newly released documents show

Trump's income taxes were often paltry, newly released documents show

House tax writers voted to disclose the long-sought information and dinged the IRS for delaying a routine audit of the former president.

Former President Donald Trump repeatedly paid little or nothing in federal income taxes between 2015 and 2020 despite reporting millions in earnings.

Documents released Tuesday night by House Democrats said Trump frequently made tens of millions of dollars annually during that period. But he was able to whittle away his tax bill by claiming steep business losses that offset that income.

In 2016, he paid $750. The following year he again paid just $750. In 2020, he paid nothing.




And though the IRS has a longstanding policy of automatically auditing every president, Democrats say the agency did not begin vetting Trump’s filings until they began asking about them in 2019.

Trump frequently claimed he was under continuous audits by the IRS to justify his refusal to voluntarily disclose his taxes, which snapped a longstanding tradition of presidents and White House contenders volunteering their returns.

The revelations, which came after House Democrats voted Tuesday to make Trump’s returns public, marks the culmination of the long-running mystery of what’s in his filings, something he’s fought for years in court to conceal. It promises to create yet another controversy for the scandal-plagued Trump, one that is sure to shadow his bid to return to the White House and raise uncomfortable questions for his fellow Republicans.

It also puts a spotlight on the IRS as well, including its recently departed commissioner, Chuck Rettig, and its promise to impartially administer the tax code.

At the same time, it is a last-minute victory for Democrats, particularly Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal, who waged a three-and-a-half year court battle for the returns but whose enthusiasm for the fight was often questioned by his party’s liberal wing.

Neal obtained the returns just last month, after the Supreme Court declined to block their release to him, and Democrats raced to get the information out before they slip into the minority in the House on Jan. 3.

Democrats said it would take some time to scrub the filings of Trump’s personal information, such as his Social Security number and addresses, but that the returns would be released in the coming days.

But Democrats asked the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan office of tax lawyers and economists that advises lawmakers on tax issues, to examine Trump’s filings and lawmakers released the agency’s findings along with their own report on the IRS audit system.

Though Trump has cultivated an image of a wildly successful businessman, and bragged about paying little in taxes, he appears to do that mostly by reporting big losses.

In 2015, JCT said, Trump reported making more than $50 million, through a combination of capital gains, interest, dividends and other earnings. That was offset though by more than $85 million in reported losses.

He was hit by the alternative minimum tax that year, a levy designed to make it harder for the rich to zero out their tax bills. It generated a $641,931 tax bill.

The following year he reported making $30 million but also claimed $60 million in losses. He was dinged again by the AMT that year, though he still ended up owing just $750.

In other years, Trump paid more. In 2018, he had far fewer losses to report and ended up paying $999,466.

JCT did not itself audit Trump’s returns and did not attempt to verify the numbers he reported. It criticized the IRS though for not more vigorously examining the filings.

The IRS has a policy dating to the Nixon administration of automatically vetting every president’s returns — something designed to both assure the public that the tax system is being administered equitably and also to spare the IRS from having to make politically fraught decisions over which presidents to audit.

Little is known publicly about how that process work. A 1998 law makes White House meddling in audits a felony.

Neal told reporters though he had not come across evidence that Trump had tried to influence the agency when it came to examining his taxes.

The super-rich are typically subject to relatively high audit rates. The IRS says it examined 8.7 percent of those who made more than $10 million in 2019.

People in the top 0.01 percent of incomes, making more than $7.4 million in 2020, paid an average tax rate of 25.1 percent. The average rate that year for everyone was 13.6 percent.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden reported paying 24.6 percent.

It is highly unusual for lawmakers to forcibly release private tax information, and Trump was not legally required to disclose his taxes.

But he defied a decades-old tradition of presidents volunteering their filings, incensing congressional Democrats who seized his returns under a century-old law allowing the chairs of Congress’s tax committees to examine anyone’s private tax information.

Many Democrats said the public not only had a right to know about Trump’s finances, they also said they wanted to know how vigorously the IRS was questioning the president’s returns.

Republicans scoffed, saying Democrats were simply looking for ways to embarrass Trump and warned Neal’s move would create a precedent that could be used against other people.

Democrats got his personal returns as well as a handful of business filings from 2015 to 2020 — mostly coinciding with Trump’s time in office.

Some said Democrats did not demand to see enough of Trump’s records, arguing they should have asked for more from previous years, before he was running for president, that could have still been under audit when he came to the White House.

Democrats’ impending release of the returns will create an opportunity for a crowdsourced audit, with outside tax experts eager to weigh in, something Trump confidante Michael Cohen told Congress in 2019 that Trump feared if they ever became public.

“What he didn’t want was to have an entire group of think tanks that are tax experts run through his tax returns and start ripping it to pieces, and then he’ll end up in an audit and he’ll ultimately have taxable consequences, penalties and so on,” Cohen said.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
×