Washington. After years of legal wrangling, a US congressional committee released former President Donald Trump’s tax records. The House Finance Committee published Trump’s 2015-2020 tax documents on Friday. As the committee had previously announced, records show that Trump paid little or no federal income taxes for several years, despite the New York real estate mogul’s frequent boast about his wealth.
The then-president claimed losses of almost $4.7 million in 2020, when the US economy and therefore also Trump’s companies were hit hard by the corona pandemic. In 2018 and 2019, he reportedly paid $1.1 million in federal income taxes. In 2017 – his first year in the White House – it was just $750.
The committee also published a report on the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) review of Trump’s finances before Christmas. Thus, the authority only began to examine the president’s documents in 2019, although it should have done so in his first two years in office.
There have been political and legal disputes over tax documents for years. The Republican was the first president since Richard Nixon to refuse to release his tax returns. This led to speculation that the wealthy real estate developer had something to hide.
tug of war for liberation
House Democrats have tried in vain to obtain the documents for years. In November, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of tax returns. Subsequently, the IRS submitted the documents relating to the years 2015 to 2020 to the Tax Policy Commission. He had argued that he needed the documents to understand how the tax authorities could verify presidents’ finances. Trump, on the other hand, accuses lawmakers of pursuing purely political goals.
The “New York Times” has previously reported extensively on Trump’s tax returns during the 2020 election campaign.