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Donald Trump has failed to release his tax returns. You are now online.
After years of legal battles, a US House committee has released tax documents from former President Donald Trump, 76. The Democratic-led House Treasury Committee released thousands of pages of Trump’s tax documents from 2015 to 2020 on Friday.
According to the group, this shows that despite Trump boasting about his wealth, he has paid little or no federal income tax over the years. For years, Trump has used legal avenues to resist handing over documents to the Treasury Department — finally losing in the U.S. Supreme Court a few weeks ago.
Income tax is only $750 for the first year in office
The committee had previously submitted two reports with large amounts of information from the tax documents and, along with most Democrats, decided to make the original documents available to the public, at least — or black out — sensitive information. Now it continued. This is a huge amount of data.
Preliminary summary reports released by the committee last week list detailed information from Trump’s tax returns for the years 2015 through 2020 — both before and throughout his time as president.
According to Trump, he paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016, the year he was elected, and 2017, his first year in the White House. Then in 2018 he declared millions in profits and paid about $1 million in income taxes. In 2020, his last year in office, Trump paid no income tax.
“Aggressive Tax Strategies”
The New York Times had already reported in the middle of the campaign ahead of the 2020 presidential election that Trump paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017. This was made possible by discounts and credits, among others, due to high losses. Trump denied this at the time and said he had paid “millions”.
The Finance Committee recently complained: “Multiple reports have revealed that the former president pursued aggressive tax strategies and decades of tax avoidance through the complexities of his personal and business finances.”
One of the group’s two reports released last week also said the IRS failed to properly screen Trump. In his four years in office, only one mandatory audit was initiated and none completed. Trump has always insisted that his tax documents were audited during his presidency — which is why he couldn’t release them.
Defeated in the Supreme Court
Unlike the norm in the United States, Trump, a real estate mogul, has not made his tax returns public either as a presidential candidate or after moving into the White House. So critics suspected he had something to hide — and he defended himself against the disclosure of the documents by all means legal.
The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives had been trying for years to get hold of the tax documents. During Trump’s administration, the Treasury Department initially stood in the way. It was only last year under the administration of his Democratic successor, Joe Biden, that the Treasury Department finally instructed the IRS to hand over documents to the committee. Trump defended himself in court and tried various cases until his only option was to go to the Supreme Court, which he ultimately lost in November.
Trump plans to run again
It’s a last-minute win for the group: With Republicans winning a majority in the House of Representatives in congressional elections and taking over next week, the Democratic-led body is running out of time to do anything about it. .
Trump had previously railed against the planned release of these documents: “You can’t learn much from tax returns, but it’s illegal to release them if you don’t own them,” he warned. The Republican announced in November that he would seek to run again as his party’s presidential nominee in the 2024 election. (SDA)
“Wannabe pop culture fanatic. Zombie advocate. Entrepreneur. Internet evangelist. Alcohol fanatic. Typical travel buff.”
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