The tax returns of former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania show they reported negative income in 4 of the six years between 2015 and 2020.
In three of those years — 2015, 2016 and 2017 –the Trumps reported income tax liability of just $750, a report from the House Ways and Means Committee revealed.
The Democrat-controlled panel voted 24-16 along party lines Tuesday evening to release the Trumps’ tax returns following a legal battle that began in 2016.
The total release of the returns is predicted in the approaching days in spite of everything personal information is redacted from them.
Within the six-year period covered by the returns, the Trumps’ adjusted gross income totaled negative $53.2 million, and their total federal tax liability, including self-employment and household employment taxes, was $4.4 million.
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The Trumps reported positive adjusted gross income in just two of those six years — $24.3 million in 2018 and $4.4 million in 2019.
In those years, the then-first couple’s tax bill increased, the report found, with the Trumps paying almost $1 million in taxes in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019.
In 2020, because the coronavirus pandemic raged across the country, the Trumps reported a lack of $4.8 million and paid $0 in federal taxes.
The discharge of the returns follows a protracted legal fight that began in April 2019 and went all of the solution to the Supreme Court.
The panel’s 29-page executive summary also shows that the IRS did not conduct a compulsory audit of Donald Trump’s tax returns in the course of the forty fifth president’s first two years in office — skirting a requirement that dates back to 1977 following an issue over former President Richard Nixon’s taxes.
The IRS only began examining the previous president’s individual tax return for 2015 — the 12 months he announced his candidacy — on April 3, 2019, the identical day committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the federal agency in search of information in regards to the returns.
Greater than five months later in September 2019, the report says, the agency chosen Trump’s 2016 return for a compulsory audit. The person returns for 2017, 2018 and 2019 weren’t chosen for examination until after the previous president had left office.
The committee released no evidence that Trump that sought to directly influence the IRS or discourage the agency from reviewing his tax information, but its report found problems with the agency’s approach to the audits.
Specifically, IRS agents in control of the audits repeatedly didn’t herald specialists with expertise assessing the complicated structure of Trump’s holdings. They continuously determined that a limited examination was warranted because Trump hired knowledgeable accounting firm that they assumed would be sure that Trump “properly reports all income and deduction items accurately.”
“The Committee expected that these mandatory audits were being conducted promptly and in accordance with IRS policies,” Neal said in a press release Tuesday. “We anticipated the IRS would expand the mandatory audit program to account for the complex nature of the previous president’s financial situation yet found no evidence of that. That is a serious failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and positively not what we had hoped to search out.
“However the evidence is evident,” said Neal. “Congress must step in.”
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In response to the committee’s probe, Neal has proposed laws standardizing the IRS’s approach, requiring an initial report no later than 90 days from the filing of a president’s tax returns. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere with mere days to go before the top of the congressional session and Republicans taking control of the House on Jan. 3.
Trump, 76, who announced last month that he’s running for president again in 2024, became the primary White House candidate in 4 a long time to refuse to voluntarily disclose his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, citing a supposed audit — though an audit wouldn’t have precluded him from making the returns public.
A spokesman for the previous president characterised the discharge of the returns as an “unprecedented leak by lame duck Democrats” in a press release to the Wall Street Journal.
“If this injustice can occur to President Trump, it will probably occur to all Americans without cause,” Steven Cheung told the newspaper, adding that the complete release of the returns will reflect Trump’s success as a businessman.
Democratic members of the committee said the discharge of the returns was mandatory for transparency.
“I voted to bolster this critical principle: No one is above the law, not even a president of america,” committee member Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said.
Neal insisted to reporters the committee’s probe was “in regards to the presidency, not the president.”
But Republicans warned that it could set a dangerous precedent.
“Over our objections in opposition, Democrats within the Ways and Means Committee have unleashed a dangerous recent political weapon that overturns a long time of privacy protections,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the highest GOPer on the panel, told reporters.
“The era of political targeting, and of Congress’ enemies list, is back and each American, every American taxpayer, who may get on the flawed side of the bulk in Congress is now in danger,” the Texas lawmaker said.
Earlier this month, a Manhattan trial jury found the Trump Organization guilty of criminal tax fraud.
Prosecutors said the corporate helped top executives evade income taxes by providing them off-the-book perks like rent, private school tuition and luxury cars.
The tax returns of former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania show they reported negative income in 4 of the six years between 2015 and 2020.
In three of those years — 2015, 2016 and 2017 –the Trumps reported income tax liability of just $750, a report from the House Ways and Means Committee revealed.
The Democrat-controlled panel voted 24-16 along party lines Tuesday evening to release the Trumps’ tax returns following a legal battle that began in 2016.
The total release of the returns is predicted in the approaching days in spite of everything personal information is redacted from them.
Within the six-year period covered by the returns, the Trumps’ adjusted gross income totaled negative $53.2 million, and their total federal tax liability, including self-employment and household employment taxes, was $4.4 million.
Commercial
The Trumps reported positive adjusted gross income in just two of those six years — $24.3 million in 2018 and $4.4 million in 2019.
In those years, the then-first couple’s tax bill increased, the report found, with the Trumps paying almost $1 million in taxes in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019.
In 2020, because the coronavirus pandemic raged across the country, the Trumps reported a lack of $4.8 million and paid $0 in federal taxes.
The discharge of the returns follows a protracted legal fight that began in April 2019 and went all of the solution to the Supreme Court.
The panel’s 29-page executive summary also shows that the IRS did not conduct a compulsory audit of Donald Trump’s tax returns in the course of the forty fifth president’s first two years in office — skirting a requirement that dates back to 1977 following an issue over former President Richard Nixon’s taxes.
The IRS only began examining the previous president’s individual tax return for 2015 — the 12 months he announced his candidacy — on April 3, 2019, the identical day committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the federal agency in search of information in regards to the returns.
Greater than five months later in September 2019, the report says, the agency chosen Trump’s 2016 return for a compulsory audit. The person returns for 2017, 2018 and 2019 weren’t chosen for examination until after the previous president had left office.
The committee released no evidence that Trump that sought to directly influence the IRS or discourage the agency from reviewing his tax information, but its report found problems with the agency’s approach to the audits.
Specifically, IRS agents in control of the audits repeatedly didn’t herald specialists with expertise assessing the complicated structure of Trump’s holdings. They continuously determined that a limited examination was warranted because Trump hired knowledgeable accounting firm that they assumed would be sure that Trump “properly reports all income and deduction items accurately.”
“The Committee expected that these mandatory audits were being conducted promptly and in accordance with IRS policies,” Neal said in a press release Tuesday. “We anticipated the IRS would expand the mandatory audit program to account for the complex nature of the previous president’s financial situation yet found no evidence of that. That is a serious failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and positively not what we had hoped to search out.
“However the evidence is evident,” said Neal. “Congress must step in.”
Commercial
In response to the committee’s probe, Neal has proposed laws standardizing the IRS’s approach, requiring an initial report no later than 90 days from the filing of a president’s tax returns. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere with mere days to go before the top of the congressional session and Republicans taking control of the House on Jan. 3.
Trump, 76, who announced last month that he’s running for president again in 2024, became the primary White House candidate in 4 a long time to refuse to voluntarily disclose his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, citing a supposed audit — though an audit wouldn’t have precluded him from making the returns public.
A spokesman for the previous president characterised the discharge of the returns as an “unprecedented leak by lame duck Democrats” in a press release to the Wall Street Journal.
“If this injustice can occur to President Trump, it will probably occur to all Americans without cause,” Steven Cheung told the newspaper, adding that the complete release of the returns will reflect Trump’s success as a businessman.
Democratic members of the committee said the discharge of the returns was mandatory for transparency.
“I voted to bolster this critical principle: No one is above the law, not even a president of america,” committee member Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said.
Neal insisted to reporters the committee’s probe was “in regards to the presidency, not the president.”
But Republicans warned that it could set a dangerous precedent.
“Over our objections in opposition, Democrats within the Ways and Means Committee have unleashed a dangerous recent political weapon that overturns a long time of privacy protections,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the highest GOPer on the panel, told reporters.
“The era of political targeting, and of Congress’ enemies list, is back and each American, every American taxpayer, who may get on the flawed side of the bulk in Congress is now in danger,” the Texas lawmaker said.
Earlier this month, a Manhattan trial jury found the Trump Organization guilty of criminal tax fraud.
Prosecutors said the corporate helped top executives evade income taxes by providing them off-the-book perks like rent, private school tuition and luxury cars.
