The New York Times obtained years of President Donald Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns, showing he has avoided paying federal income taxes for years.
Here are the top takeaways from the Times’ investigation:
-Trump paid no personal federal income taxes at all for 10 of the 15 years leading up to his White House bid. He paid just $750 in federal income taxes they year he won the presidency and another $750 the year he took office.
-Trump is in an audit battle with the IRS. Trump used a measure in President Barack Obama’s recession relief efforts to write off over $700 million in losses he was not allowed to use in previous years. The result was a $72 million federal tax refund. The IRS has been examining the legitimacy of the refund since 2011, and a ruling against Trump could cost him more than $100 million. The case appears to have stalled since his presidential run.
-Trump is more than $400 million in debt. Trump has taken on hundreds of millions in personally guaranteed loans which would come due during his second term if he is re-elected.
-Trump lost a ton of money. Though Trump has earned more than $420 million thanks to “The Apprentice,” much of that money has been used to “prop up” his own struggling businesses, The Times reported. Trump has reported that his 15 golf courses have lost more than $315 million in recent years.
-Trump has regularly used write-offs to label his children, who are executives at the Trump Organization, as consultants to reduce his taxable income.
-Trump’s tax returns are not like other wealthy Americans. The average income tax for someone in the top 0.001% is 24%. "Over the past two decades, Mr. Trump has paid about $400 million less in combined federal income taxes than a very wealthy person who paid the average for that group each year," The Times reported.
-The investigation also found that almost all of Trump’s charitable contributions have come from a tax easement deal for a sprawling summer property he bought in Westchester, NY. Using a loophole that allowed him to claim historic preservation, $119 million of the $130 million he has reported giving to charity has come from the estate’s tax provision.
Trump defended his taxes on Twitter:
AOC labels Trump a “walking scam”:
