Donald Trump Facing Tax Issues Now? Just days before the Republicans will take control of the United States House of Representatives, the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
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It is the culmination of a nearly four-year investigation, as well as a legal battle that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The committee voted just last week to make Trump’s tax returns public, then released two reports, one from its members and another from the Joint Committee on Taxation, noting that the IRS did not actually audit Trump the first two years he was in office.
That is an apparent violation of IRS policy, which mandates that sitting presidents are to be audited under normal IRS procedures.
Shortly after the release of the returns on Friday, a Trump fundraising committee sent out an email with the subject line, “Urgent: The Democrats unconstitutionally released President Trump’s tax returns,” CBS News reported.
However, the former president had broken with decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax returns as a candidate in the 2016 election.
Moreover, the high court in the land had declined to block the release of the returns to lawmakers.
Donald Trump Paid No Taxes?
The publicized returns further put in the spotlight the former president’s financial portrait in the years he was running for and in office.
The report from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) stated the former president paid no federal income tax in 2020, the final year of his presidency, and even claimed a refund of $5.47 million. In addition, Trump paid a net of just $750 in income taxes in 2017, while he paid $1.1 million in net federal income taxes combined in 2018 and 2019.
According to The Hill, tax experts have already expressed interest in the former president’s accounting methods to determine how he could get out of paying taxes in 2020.
The 39-page report by the Joint Committee on Taxation staff provided a full breakdown of the highlights of Trump’s joint tax filings with First Lady Melania during his time in office, as well as the two years he first ran for president.
Key points:
*President Trump and First Lady Melania declared a negative income of $31.7 million, and a taxable income of $0, on their 2015 return. They paid $641,931 in federal income taxes.
*On their 2016 return, the Trumps declared a negative income of $31.2 million, while they also recorded $0 of taxable income. They paid $750 in taxes.
*Trump and his wife declared $12.8 million in negative income in the 2017 return, with $0 in taxable income. They again paid just $750 in taxes.
*The 2018 return showed that they declared $24.4 million in total income and $22.9 million in taxable income. They paid $999,466 in federal income taxes.
*The 2019 return showed that the Trumps declared $4.44 million in total income, along with $2.97 million in taxable income. They paid $133,445 in taxes.
*In their 2020 return the Trumps declared negative income of $4.69 million and no taxable income. They paid no tax for that year and claimed a refund of $5.47 million.
No Audit?
A separate report was also released on Friday by the Ways and Means Committee, and it revealed that the IRS had started an audit of just one of Trump’s tax returns while he was serving as president despite an internal policy mandating that sitting presidents have their returns audited annually.
The report further identified areas that the staff thought warranted further examination, including the documentation of nearly $506,000 in charitable donations claimed by the Trumps in 2019.
The committee also cited delaying tactics that were reportedly used by Trump’s legal team, accusing them of “failing to provide all the facts needed to resolve certain issues, and stating, in some cases, that they ‘would likely have additional relevant facts to present in its protest or at appeal.'”
In addition, previously published excerpts of Trump’s returns, and testimony at the Trump Organization’s recent criminal trial had focused on periods in which he reported large financial losses. That would have allowed him to pay little or nothing in federal income taxes for some years.
Supporters of the former president have dismissed the report as a witchhunt.
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Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
