Donald Trump paid only 750 US dollars in federal income taxes in the year he was elected president, according to a staggering New York Times investigation that will rock the American presidential election.
The revelations come days before Trump faces Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the first televised election debate of the campaign.
There have been questions about Trump’s tax returns for years. The sums, less than £600, are in Trump’s personal tax returns the newspaper obtained showing chronic losses and years of apparent tax avoidance.
The paper reported the president "paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency” adding that "in his first year in the White House, he paid another $750."
It continues: "He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years – largely because he reported losing much more money than he made."
In all, the paper said, Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years it examined.
Many of his businesses, including his golf courses in Scotland, report significant financial losses – which have helped him to lower his US taxes.
The investigation revealed:
- Trump paid $750 in income tax the year he won the presidency. He paid another $750 in his first year in the White House.
- In ten of the previous 15 years, he paid no income tax at all.
- Despite raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year he racking up huge losses to avoid tax.
- He deducted $70,000 from his bill on “hairstyling” alone.
The revelations threaten to blow apart Trump’s claims to be a billionaire and a successful businessman capable of running the US economy.
The president hit back at a press conference on Sunday night.
He dismissed the reports: “That is fake news. That is totally fake news, made-up, fake.”
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 Internal Revenue Service does not treat me well, they treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS, they treat me very badly.”
Trump faces an audit over a $73 million tax refund he received after declaring massive losses and an adverse ruling could cost him over $100 million.
The documents also reveal that within the next four years Trump faces more than $300 million worth of loans coming due.
Trump will face Joe Biden at the polls on 3rd November.
He has resisted demands by political opponents and the media to release decades of tax information for years and is the first president since the 1970s to keep his tax returns concealed.
