NYT: Trump paid no income taxes for 10 years

U.S. President Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes for 10 out of 15 years before he was elected in 2016, The New York Times (NYT) reported. President Trump reportedly paid only a total of 1,500 dollars in federal income taxes in the year he was elected and the following year. The years of alleged tax avoidance of the entrepreneur-turned-president, who has a net worth of 2.1 billion dollars (according to Forbes), has become a hot topic in the U.S. presidential election.

The NYT on Sunday (local time) carried a report on the alleged tax avoidance of President Trump and his company, examining 20 years of tax return data. The newspaper wrote President Trump avoided payments on income taxes by reporting that he lost more money than he made.

The NTY report, however, found that President Trump earned much more than he reported through his real estate and resort businesses as well as his appearance on TV shows. During the first two years as president, Trump earned a total of 73 million dollars from foreign operations, including his Scottish and Irish golf resorts and business contracts in the Philippines and India. In 2015, the year he announced he would run for president, he earned 5 million dollars from a sharp increase in new membership at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and made 427.4 million dollars from his appearance in the reality show The Apprentice in 2018. According to estimates by the New York Times, Trump should have paid 100 million dollars in taxes from those revenues he made.

In addition, the report found that President Trump is recently faced with financial challenges from his money-losing golf resort and hotel businesses and reduced profits from licensing. The Internal Revenue Service is currently conducting an audit on the tax refund Trump claimed and an adverse ruling could cost him 100 million dollars. Furthermore, President Trump reportedly has 300 million dollars in loans, which will come due within the next four years.

President Trump denied the NYT report, calling it “fake news” and claiming he pays a lot in federal income taxes. Trump’s lawyer also denied the report, saying most of the facts appear to be inaccurate.


Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com