AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Summary
- The newest findings regarding Donald Trump’s tax returns have revealed that the US President had avoided tax for ten years and had paid US$750 in each year of 2016 and 2017.
- The total debt that Mr President’s business empire is facing is estimated to be worth approximately US$400 million.
- Mr Trump’s legal representative, Alan Garten has stated that the report was based on false information. Mr Trump, via Twitter, has called New York Times ‘the Fake News Media’.
Since the last presidential election held in the US back in 2016, controversies from the current American President Donald Trump have not stopped flooding the news articles on every media outlet.
Trump’s newest affair revealed by the globally renowned New York Times will probably make history just before the first pre-election debate with the other presidential rival Joe Biden on Tuesday, 29 September.
Namely, President Donald Trump has been accused of not paying any taxes for years to the US Federal Government, as well as having several businesses struggling financially and facing significant debts.
According to the report, Mr Trump paid US$750 (A$1,064) in taxes only in 2016 and 2017. Before getting elected, Mr Trump had seemingly avoided tax for ten years out of the last 15 years.
The reason for the tax avoidance mentioned above was the financial losses that Mr Trump reported to the government, which appeared as he was losing more than he was earning.
Mr Trump has been facing challenges against Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for over ten years regarding tax returns that he both lodged and received, worth US$72.9 million in returns. If the outcome does not come in his favour, Mr Trump may lose an additional US$100 million towards court fees and fines.
Did you see: Donald Trump flags concern about Oracle and TikTok deal
False promises
During his presidential campaign dating back in 2015, Mr Trump had promised to release his tax returns for everyone to see. However, his promise has not been fulfilled yet. His tax returns have remained a secret until the NYT investigation.
Compared to all other American presidents and candidates, Mr Trump is the only one that has done such a thing.
The main reason that Mr Trump disclosed that issue was the ongoing audit with the IRS. However, the institution had publicly stated that Mr Trump was never in a position where his tax returns needed to be kept a secret.
In a dispute with NYT and Mr Trump’s legal representative, Alan Garten, NYT did not want to reveal their findings to protect their sources (journalists are not obliged to disclose their sources unless asked by the judge during trial), after which Mr Garten accused NYT of having false information. In his tweets, Mr Trump has also addressed the newspaper, calling them ‘the Fake News Media’. According to him and his lawyer, Mr Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes over the investigated years.
Also read: Trump-Twitter Spat: Is this honking the Share Price of any stock
Self-made billionaire?
As most people are aware, Mr Trump’s vast fortune could be associated to his already wealthy family. The President built his empire by taking personal loans from his parents and siblings, which made him what he is today.
According to the report, Mr Trump’s wealth only looks good on paper, whereas in reality his businesses are struggling financially and facing millions of dollars in debts.
Notably, his golf resort and spa in Florida has a debt of A$125 million, alongside Mr Trump’s hotel in Washington with an estimated debt of A$160 million.
The President’s business empire has become famous because of several golf courses and building towers, which Mr Trump built as an investment from being involved in ‘The Apprentice’, a reality show made in 10 seasons that followed businesspeople and their performance. The analysis found that the President made US$427.4 million in total from the reality show.
Tax returns and income
As previously mentioned, Mr Trump promised to reveal his tax returns as a part of the presidential campaign, which never happened.
After being elected in 2016, the President wondered why anyone would want to have an insight in his financial records, saying there are far more important things to know about and that there is nothing, in particular, that could be learnt from them.
The only thing Mr President had disclosed to the public was the empire’s revenue, which was estimated to be at least US$439.9 million in 2018. One thing that caught the public’s mind was that the actual profit from the business empire was never revealed.
The revenue information seemed to look good on paper, but recent findings showed that the business was experiencing huge losses, US$47.4 million to be exact.
During the last presidential debate between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, Mr Trump mentioned that reporting less taxable income would make him smart.
Overall, the report found that Mr Trump has been annually losing a lot more money than earning it, mentioning that shares which Mr President owned years ago could have saved his profit long-term. However, he has been reported to have sold them all.
Must read: Trump risks a serious downturn by 2020
National security issue?
As a response to the mentioned allegations, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi had addressed that these claims could lead to the national security issue.
After doing all the math, the total debt that Mr Trump is facing is worth around US$400 million. As it is still unknown to whom Mr Trump owns money, Ms Pelosi warned that his debt could jeopardise the American nation.
There have also been some assumptions that Mr Trump has a proportion of his debt related to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Even after publishing thousands of words of text regarding Mr Trump’s tax returns, NYT had stated there will be more articles that will contain even more information than they have now.
Undoubtedly, the report had an unwanted effect on Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, as it was estimated that an average American pays a bit more than US$9,000 in taxes annually.
