Donald Trump has refuted a New York Times released report that he has only paid $750 in taxes.
In an article sure to cause embarrassment for the president as he heads into an election, as many Americans struggle under the burden of income tax, Trump has called the report “fake news”. It is reported that the president has had an ongoing dispute with the IRS since 2010 over a $72.9 million tax refund he received for taxes paid between 2005 and 2008.
“Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency,” the New York Times reported. “In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.
“He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.
“As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.
“The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes.”
What Trump is referring to is the tax breaks he receives on his debts on massive assets. While his debts may be in the millions, against the value of his assets, his debts may pale in comparison.
Many a rich person has used the tax system to avoid paying taxes. Unless their assets are sold, then they are often not taxed on the asset, yet they claim the tax break on the losses incurred in holding such property assets.
“The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent,” he tweeted. I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits.
Also, if you look at the extraordinary assets owned by me, which the Fake News hasn’t, I am extremely under leveraged – I have very little debt compared to the value of assets. Much of this information is already on file, but I have long said that I may release.
“Financial Statements, from the time I announced I was going to run for President, showing all properties, assets and debts. It is a very IMPRESSIVE Statement, and also shows that I am the only President on record to give up my yearly $400,000 plus Presidential Salary!”
While he might be right, he still faces the fact that Americans will be far from impressed that so much of their wage goes to Uncle Sam, while the nation’s leader gets to take advantage of tax breaks that they will never get to.
Donald Trump looks like he is far from a man who is even close to going broke, as the New York Times may be trying to infer. His main issue now, however, is the embarrassment of appealing to the millions of American taxpayers who shoulder the tax burden.
Matthias Browning
Matthias Browning | Reporter
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