An explosive report by The New York Times on Sunday (Sept. 27) reveals exactly what President Donald Trump has paid in taxes spanning two decades.
The report exposes Trump’s struggling properties, write-offs, an audit battle, the millions of dollars in debt he is swimming in as well as the fact that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency in 2016. His first year as president, Trump reportedly paid $750 again. In his first two years of his presidency, he earned $73 million in revenue overseas alone.
Additionally, Trump didn’t pay income taxes in 10 out of 15 previous years beginning in 2000, and before the 2016 election, because he reported a loss on the money he made.
The records The Times obtained do not contain his personal tax returns for the years 2018 and 2019, though. However, they do “reveal the hollowness, but also the wizardry, behind the self-made-billionaire image,” according to the report about the president’s finances adding, “Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.”
The newspaper further claims that Trump used the $427.4 million he made from his reality television show “The Apprentice” to fund his other various businesses such as his golf courses.
Trump is denying The New York Times story and asserts that he pays “a lot” in state income taxes.
“I pay a lot, and I pay a lot in state income taxes,” Trump said.
Trump’s personal tax returns are currently under audit by the Internal Revenue Service and he says that he will share them with everyone once the investigation is over. However, there is no rule stopping anyone from publicly sharing their returns because they’re under audit.
Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten told The Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate” as a response to their discovery. He also requested the documents for his own perusal.