Trump Denies NY Times Report On His Tax Returns
What Happened:
On Sunday, the New York Times released a report saying they obtained 20+ years of President Donald Trump's tax returns and that he paid no income taxes for 10 of the last 15 years by claiming he lost significantly more than he made. The report elaborated that he paid as little as $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidential election as well as after his first year in the White House.
In a briefing on Sunday, Trump responded to the report by saying “It's fake news, it’s totally made up...Everything was wrong, they are so bad." He added that he has paid large amounts of federal and state income taxes but walked out of the briefing when reporters questioned how much he specifically paid in federal taxes.
Trump is the only president in modern times to refuse to release his tax returns. Since before the election in 2016, he has said that he is undergoing an audit with the IRS and that he would be willing to release his records once the audit was concluded.
Trump opponents claim this is a false narrative and that it is highly unlikely that he has had an ongoing audit for over 5 years and that the more likely scenario is that he simply does not wish to release his tax returns.
Trump Organization lawyer, Alan Garten, also denied the NY Times report saying the President "has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since...his candidacy in 2015” and that "obviously this is just part of the Times’ ongoing smear campaign in the run up to the election.”
It's worth noting that Garten's statement about Trump paying millions in taxes since 2015 does not directly contradict the NY Times report which acknowledges Trump paid income taxes some of the years but that he paid very little or no income taxes for 10 of the last 15 years.
Developing Story Photo Credit: The White House