The House Ways and Means Committee released six years of failed former president Donald Trump’s tax returns this morning, and at first blush it certainly appears that the ex-president may well have manipulated the numbers to keep his tax burden low, including not paying a dime in taxes some years.
CNN reports that during the first and last years Trump was in the White House, he paid almost nothing in taxes.
The returns, long shrouded in secrecy, were released to the public on Friday by the House Ways and Means Committee, the culmination of a battle over their disclosure that went to the Supreme Court. They confirm a report issued from the Joint Committee on Taxation that Trump claimed large losses before and throughout his presidency that he carried forward to reduce or practically eliminate his tax burden. For example, his returns show that he carried forward a $105 million loss in 2015 and $73 million in 2016.
The committee also included an analysis of Trump’s tax returns, and it too raises all sorts of questions about how he and his company, the Trump Organization, managed to have such a miniscule tax liability.
Included with the committee’s report was an analysis of the numbers from each of the six Trump tax returns by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. Among the JCT’s findings, the then-president paid very little federal income tax in 2017 – just $750 – and nothing in 2020. The report also showed Trump paid a combined $1.1 million in federal income taxes in 2018 and 2019, a stark contrast to the $750 he paid in 2017 and $0 in 2020.
For many years, prior to his running for president, a New York Times investigation showed that Trump had claimed huge net operating losses that he was allowed to carry forward and apply to future tax years, which greatly reduced or simply wiped out his annual income tax liability.
For example, the JCT report noted that Trump carried forward $105 million in losses on his 2015 return, $73 million in 2016, $45 million in 2017 and $23 million in 2018.
Minutes after the tax returns were made public, Trump issued a statement via his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, which at times reads like a threat.
“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The radical, left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”
There was also this:
“The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
He sounds furious and nervous. That alone tells you the tax returns contain evidence of criminal behavior.
