According to tax records made public by a congressional subcommittee, former US President Donald Trump claimed a loss from his extensive business holdings during the final full year of his presidency but did not pay any income tax during that time.
The papers reveal that during his four years as president, Trump's income and his tax liability changed greatly. After a protracted legal battle spanning years, they were made public late on Tuesday by the Democratic-led House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
The records go against the Republican's carefully constructed reputation as an accomplished businessman as he pursues a second presidential campaign.
The documents revealed that Trump and his wife, Melania, paid taxes at some point during the course of all four years, but they were able to reduce their income taxes in a few of those years because the income from Trump's enterprises was more than offset by his tax deductions and losses.
The committee's members said the tax forms lacked sufficient information and questioned the validity of some of the deductions, including one for $916 million. In the upcoming days, the panel is anticipated to publish redacted copies of his complete returns.
Trump refused to make his tax returns public during his two presidential campaigns even though all other major-party presidential candidates have done so for decades.
The committee voted on Tuesday to make them public. A Trump spokesman called the release of the documents politically motivated.
“If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause,” Trump Organization spokesman Steven Cheung said on Wednesday.Democrats on the panel claimed that their investigation revealed that the accuracy of Trump's intricate tax returns was not properly checked by tax authorities.
Democrats pushed for action in 2019, but the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is responsible for auditing presidents' tax returns annually, did not move until then.
The panel discovered that the IRS frequently assigned just one agent to the audit and neglected to look into several of Trump's claimed deductions.
A request for comment from the IRS did not immediately receive a response.
According to media reporting and trial testimony concerning his finances, Trump declared significant losses from his enterprises for many years prior to taking office to balance out hundreds of millions of dollars in income.
According to the materials made public by the committee, this trend persisted during his four years as president.
Trump and his wife were subject to self-employment and household employment taxes at the time. They thus paid $3 million in taxes during those four years.
However, they were able to reduce their income tax due over multiple years because to deductions.
According to the data, Trump and his wife's adjusted gross income for 2017 was negative $12.9 million, resulting in a net income tax of $750.
While they reported $4.4 million in income and paid $134,000 in taxes in 2019, they reported $24.3 million in adjusted gross income in 2018 and paid a net tax of $1 million.
They reported a $4.8 million loss in 2020 and made no net income tax payments.
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