Finally WE Can See Trump Taxes-No Audit and No Taxes For Some Years
Trump’s taxes
The struggle over Trump’s tax returns stretches back to his first presidential campaign, which began in 2015. He defied historical norms and refused to make public the documents. Once they took over the House majority in 2019, Democrats requested the returns from the I.R.S. ostensibly to assess the agency’s mandatory presidential audit program, setting off a fight to get them. The key to Democrats’ ultimate victory — delivered by the Supreme Court last month — was their willingness to commit to years of court fights (and holding on to their House majority in 2020).
On Tuesday, Democrats voted to begin releasing thousands of pages of Trump’s personal and business tax records in the coming days. Republicans objected on privacy grounds and warned that the disclosure would set a dangerous precedent.
Here are the highlights so far, based on a summary congressional report:
Despite the program that requires audits of sitting presidents, the I.R.S. failed to audit Trump during the first two years of his presidency. It began auditing returns from those years only after he left office.
Those audits are still going on. Democrats are now pushing for a government watchdog to investigate and contemplating reforms to the audit program.
Trump paid $1.1 million in federal income taxes in his first three years as president. But in 2020, as the Covid pandemic gripped the country, he reported a $4.8 million loss and paid zero income tax.
The documents added new information to reporting in The New York Times that shows he aggressively used chronic losses to avoid paying taxes, despite taking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Jan. 6
The Jan. 6 committee took direct aim at Trump this week in the finale to its own 18-month investigation. The panel voted on Monday to recommend that the Justice Department prosecute the former president for a range of crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Today it plans to release an 800-plus-page final report documenting that scheme in vivid detail. While investigators in other high-profile Trump-era congressional inquiries struggled to secure witnesses, the Jan. 6 team worked with more than 1,000 and left few major questions unanswered.
The witnesses included senior members of the administration, G.O.P. officials and other Republicans who were freer to talk after Trump left office or were motivated by the threat of legal action or by a disgust with his actions. It also helped that the committee did not include Republican members hostile to its mission who may have tried to undermine its work.
More Trump news
The I.R.S. didn’t audit Trump in his first years in office, but it subjected both President Barack Obama and President Biden to annual audits.
Trump had an adjusted gross income of $15.8 million in his first three years in office. See the key figures from his tax returns.
Trump’s presidency was marked by some of the same questionable tax maneuvers that characterized his business career.
New York Times
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