Donald Trump ‘paid $750 in federal income tax in 2016’, says bombshell tax return report
Expose of the decade?
US President Donald Trump paid just $750 (£587) in federal income tax in 2016, the year he was elected, and 2017, according to a bombshell report from the New York Times.
The publication claims it has obtained tax records for Trump covering over two decades.
The findings allegedly show “chronic losses and years of tax avoidance” say the NYT; the newspaper also claims Trump paid no income tax at all for 10 of the previous 15 years because he reported losing more money than he made.
In a statement to the NYT, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organisation, said: “Over the past decade, President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015.”
Trump hismelf has dismissed the claims as “total fake news.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he said: “Actually I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time. The IRS [Internal Revenue Service] does not treat me well. […] They treat me very badly.”
The 2020 US Presidential election takes place on 3 November 2020. It will see Republican Trump go up against Democrat leader Joe Biden.