Ex-President Donald Trump paid $0 in taxes in 2020 and $1.1million during his time in office (Picture: AP)
Former President Donald Trump’s released tax returns show he reported negative income in four years from 2015 to 2020.
During the first three years of his presidency, Trump paid $1.1million in federal income taxes but paid $0 in taxes as his income dropped in 2020, according to data unveiled by the House Ways and Means Committee late Tuesday.
The 45th president and his wife Melania reported income tax liability of $750 or less in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the data shows.
Trump refused to disclose his tax returns in 2016 as he pursued and won the presidency, becoming the first candidate in four decades who did not voluntarily make them public. Trump claimed that he was being audited by the IRS, and the matter turned into a legal battle.
The House Ways and Means Committee released ex-President Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2016 (Picture: AP)
But data from the House committee reveals that the IRS was not auditing Trump when he used the agency as an excuse for not releasing his returns. The IRS began auditing Trump in April 2019, and examined just two years of his tax returns.
The IRS did not start auditing Trump’s filings on income he earned while in the White House until his term ended, and has not yet finished those reviews.
On Tuesday night, the Democrat-controlled House panel voted 24-16 to release Trump’s returns.
Documents on the six years uncovered so far show that the Trumps’ adjusted gross income was negative $53.2million. The couple’s federal tax liability was $4.4million.
The Trumps reported income tax liability of $750 or less in 2015 (Picture: AP)
The Trumps reported positive adjusted gross income in 2018 and 2019, $24.3million and $4.4million, respectively. They paid nearly $1million in taxes in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Trumps reported a $4.8million loss and did not pay taxes.
The release of Trump’s full tax returns is expected in the coming days.
Committee Chairman Richard Neal said the panel expects the IRS’s audits to be conducted ‘promptly’.
‘We anticipated the IRS would expand the mandatory audit program to account for the complex nature of the former president’s financial situation yet found no evidence of that. This is a major failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and certainly not what we had hoped to find,’ stated Neal.
‘But the evidence is clear. Congress must step in.’
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US lawmakers have released ex-President Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020.
