Washington- The House Ways and Means Committee released Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, dealing another setback for the former president and 2024 White House candidate as he faces multiple federal and state investigations. .
The Democratic-led panel released the financial documents for six years, capping off a protracted legal and political battle that could have been avoided if Trump had followed presidential precedent and released his statements voluntarily.
Democrats have lobbied for more than three years to make Trump’s tax returns public, and thousands of pages of documents were finally made available to the Ways and Means Committee late last month after the Supreme Court denied a latest Trump’s attempt to withhold the records.
The returns show that Trump paid little or nothing in income taxes compared to his gross income for six years, including the four in which he served as president. Trump lost thousands of dollars in revenue between 2015 and 2017, largely due to net losses tied to real estate and other businesses.
On his 2017 tax return, Trump claimed business expenses and other losses and deductions for more than $279.5 million, significantly reducing the amount of tax he owed. Those deductions included “helicopter expenses” and foreign taxes paid.
That year, he paid $750 in federal income taxes. Due to significant business losses in 2020, Trump paid no taxes.
little altruistic
The remarks also reinforce that Trump, who used to brag about his philanthropic efforts, has donated relatively little money to charity. In fiscal 2019, he reported just over $500,000 in charitable donations and reported that he gave no money to charity in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic that upended the economy, led to widespread job losses and it forced many Americans to rely on charity and food banks.
The committee’s Friday release includes thousands of pages of financial documents, which lawmakers made available for the public to download and review.
The launch marks another blow for Trump, who is struggling to mount a campaign for president as numerous investigations and controversies continue to swirl around him. His most recent actions, from dining with outspoken white supremacists to suggesting rescinding the Constitution, have left many in the GOP reconsidering whether he remains the most viable candidate to lead the GOP after midterm voters rejected largely to candidates endorsed by the former president.
sweeping action
The release of Trump’s tax information is the most radical such action taken by Congress in half a century. A similar action involving a president has not occurred since 1973, when the IRS turned over President Richard M. Nixon’s tax returns to a congressional committee.
The IRS turned over Nixon’s statements the day Congress requested them, a fact pointed out by House Democrats seeking the Trump documents. Republicans denied any similarity, The Washington Post reported, noting that Nixon requested the investigation of his statements, while Trump fought that investigation.
Trump broke a decades-long tradition of presidential candidates and presidents refusing to release their tax returns, falsely claiming for years that he could not release them while under a “routine audit” by the IRS.
Responding to Friday’s statement, Trump said: “The Democrats should never have done it, the Supreme Court should never have approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The radical left-wing Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”
President Joe Biden, as a candidate and incumbent, has released his tax returns.
After the repayments became public, an exchange between CNN’s Chris Wallace and Trump resurfaced during a 2020 debate that showed the former president repeatedly denying that he only paid $750 in 2016 and 2017, claiming he had instead paid “millions of dollars.” ” in taxes. Three days before the debate, the New York Times had reported on the payment of taxes based on the data it had obtained. The results prove that Wallace was right.
Upon taking office, Trump had pledged not to enter into new deals abroad to avoid conflicts of interest, but he continued to receive income from foreign businesses during his time as president. Trump filed multiple FinCEN reports during fiscal years 2015 through 2017, suggesting that he had financial accounts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and China. He also filed statements on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin in 2015 and 2016.
It received more than $55 million in gross receipts from more than a dozen countries, including Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada, and Qatar. Many of the overseas locations were places where the Trump company would partner on Trump-branded real estate projects, a lucrative licensing business that Trump refused to part with after he was elected.
