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- A bombshell report by The New York Times alleges the U.S. President only paid US$750 in tax during both 2016 and 2017
- The report also claims Donald Trump paid no tax in 11 of the 18 years it examined
- But, President Trump has already denied the reports, labelling them “fake news”
- Trump has never released his tax returns, despite promising to do so in the lead-up to the 2016 election
- His financial records are also the subject of multiple legal proceedings, as New York investigators look into allegations of corruption
A bombshell new report claims U.S. President Donald Trump paid as little as US$750 in tax during his first two years in the top job.
The New York Times has released a report examining Trump’s tax returns after managing to obtain the never-before-seen documents.
It alleges the president only paid US$750 in tax in 2016 and 2017, and no tax in 11 of the 18 years of tax returns examined by the NYT.
In comparison, Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, each paid around US$100,000 in taxes each year during their terms.
“The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public,” the report states.
“His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes,” it concludes.
The report also reveals Trump has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in loans which he may not be able to pay.
It also alleges his long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) over a US$72.9 million refund could cost the President over US$100 million if he loses the case.
Denial
The president has already responded to the alleged leak of his contentious tax returns, stating the NYT report is “fake news.”
“That is fake news. That is totally fake news, made up, fake,” Donald Trump said.
“We went through the same stories, you could have asked me the same questions four years ago. I had to litigate this and talk about it. Totally fake news, no,” he added.
Trump also denied the records were correct, instead stating his tax returns were under audit and this was why they hadn’t been released.
“Actually I pay tax. You will see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time,” Trump explained.
One of his lawyers has also denied the report, stating “over the past decade, President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015.”
President Trump’s tax returns have been long been debated, primarily because he failed to produce them — despite promising to do so — in the lead up to the 2016 election.
Since then, his returns have become embroiled in a number of different legal cases, with New York prosecutors seeking them out as they investigate the alleged corruption.
Specifically, prosecutors are looking into claims President Trump authorised hush payments to be paid from campaign funds to adult actress Stormy Daniels, in return for her remaining quiet about their previous affair.
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has since pleaded guilty and been sentenced for his role in the hush payments.
