New York Times: Trump largely avoided paying taxes for years

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

The New York Times has obtained tax return records for President Trump covering more than two decades, and they show that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years, primarily because he reported losing more money than he made.

Trump has not made his tax filings public, and the information made its way to the Times via sources with legal access to it. The filings contain information Trump disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service, but do not reveal his net worth. Trump has said his tax returns aren't as important as the annual financial disclosures he must submit as president; comparing the two, the Times found that in 2018, Trump put in his disclosure he made at least $434.9 million, while the tax records show he incurred $47.4 million in losses.

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The tax returns show that since 2010, Trump has failed to pay back $287 million to lenders, and within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans that he is personally responsible for will come due. Trump Tower in Manhattan is what is helping keep Trump afloat, the Times reports — the retail and commercial space has delivered $336.3 million in profits since 2000.

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the Times "most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate" in the newspaper's report, adding that over the last decade, 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." The Times notes when Garten says "personal taxes," he seems to be conflating income taxes with other federal taxes Trump has paid, like Medicare and Social Security. Read more at The New York Times.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.