Trump 'Paid Just $750 In Federal Income Taxes In 2016 And 2017', NY Times Says
President Donald Trump is personally responsible for $421m (£330m) in debt and loans that are largely coming due in the next four years, The New York Times reported Sunday, after obtaining more than two decades of his long-sought tax returns.
An ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, could cost Trump more than $100m (£78m).
The Times found that Trump paid just $750 in personal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, citing business losses in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to decrease his tax burden.
The Times report also revealed that the president’s vast business interests created potential and real conflicts of interest for years and are under more financial stress than the self-described billionaire has previously disclosed.
Documents obtained by the Times painted a more detailed picture of the president’s personal fortune and his network of 500 business entities, as well as the legal maneuvering he has employed to pay little or no taxes for many years.
The Times did not obtain Trump’s personal tax returns for 2018 or 2019, but the breadth of documents — including records for his first two years in office — showed a large increase in income at properties that have become lightning rods for criticism after he refused to divest himself of his businesses while in office.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization told the publication that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate,” and the president himself said the report was “totally fake news” and “made up” in a Sunday news conference.
But the documents, obtained from unnamed sources that had legal access to them, painted by far the most detailed picture of the president’s finances.
Beginning in 2015, Trump was able to earn an extra $5m a year from his club, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida. The tax records detailed monthly credit card receipts that showed transactions ballooned at the Trump International Hotel in...
