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Economy
Sep 28, 2020

Trump’s income tax issue ‘hot debatable’

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FA Correspondent
US President Donald Trump. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP
US President Donald Trump. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP

US President Donald Trump paid only US $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he ran for White House Office, and paid no income taxes at all during many other years, according to an eye-opening revelation report.

Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years because he reported losing much more money than he made, The New York Times newspaper said. 

As president, Donald Trump received more money from foreign sources than previously known.

This is only one of many findings from an investigation by The New York Times which obtained more than two decades of previously unreleased tax documents from Trump.

Other potentially damaging findings with global ties for the president include: US $315 million in losses for his golf courses around the world, and a US $13 million licensing deal for Trump Towers in Turkey’s capital, Istanbul, including US $1 million since he became president- not to mention the US $70,000 business write-off for his hair styling.

Trump prides himself on his reputation as a global business mogul, but his taxes suggest his companies show chronic losses potentially undermining his claims of business acumen as he enters the remaining weeks in his bid for re-election.

“He campaigned for office as a billionaire real-estate mogul and successful businessman,” the report added.

But, Trump dismissed the report as “totally fake news” and said he has paid taxes, though he gave no specifics.

The disclosure comes from tax return data it obtained extending over two decades, comes at a pivotal moment ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday.

In fact, the president has fielded court challenges against those seeking access to his returns, including the US House of Representatives, which is suing for access to Trump’s tax returns as part of congressional oversight.

US presidents are not required by law to release details of their personal finances, but every one since Richard Nixon has done so.

The records “reveal the hollowness, but also the wizardry, behind the self-made-billionaire image,” it added.

Alan Garten, a lawyer and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate.” 

“Over the past decade, President 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,” he said.

During his first general election debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton said that perhaps Trump wasn’t releasing his tax returns because he had paid nothing in federal taxes. Trump interrupted her to say, “That makes me smart.”

(With agencies & The World inputs)

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