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Donald Trump: What the release of his tax records means

2022-12-21T16:24:03.362Z


Donald Trump's tax records are set to be released. The first figures from the relevant congressional committee paint an unflattering picture for the ex-president and the tax authorities. The overview.


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Donald Trump: Tax levels fluctuate greatly

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Rebecca Blackwell/AP

The public will probably soon get an in-depth look at Donald Trump's personal finances.

A Democrat-majority committee of the US House of Representatives has decided that at least parts of the former US President's tax documents will be published.

The committee has already published initial information.

What is known so far – and what could the documents shed light on?

The overview.

Why are tax records so important?

In the USA it is normal for many politicians to disclose parts of their private finances.

Presidential candidates and presidents, for example, publish their tax returns to demonstrate transparency.

In this way, they want to prevent allegations that they are financially dependent and therefore potentially susceptible to political influence.

Donald Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon (1969-1974) to break this habit.

The reasons why he did not disclose his tax returns changed, but the result did not change: Trump kept the information to himself.

Assumptions that he had something to hide were fueled by this.

Starting in 2019, the House Committee on Tax Policy – ​​the Ways and Means Committee – tried to get hold of previous Trump tax returns.

Among other things, the Democrats wanted to check whether the real estate entrepreneur's conflicts of interest resulted from the documents, i.e. whether he used his office as president to gain business advantages for himself or his company.

The question should also be investigated as to whether Trump used questionable and possibly illegal methods to save taxes.

Trump fought back, saying the committee was pursuing purely political goals and wanted to harm him.

Trump has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the next presidential election.

The Supreme Court nevertheless cleared the way for the documents to be released in November.

The federal tax authority IRS subsequently handed over the documents to the committee, which has now spoken out in favor of publication.

What does the documentation say?

Trump's tax records from 2015 to 2020, which are at issue in this case, were not released immediately after the decision.

Democratic committee member Lloyd Doggett told CNN that it could take a few more days because sensitive data like social security numbers would have to be blacked out.

However, the Committee has released an initial report and summary of the tax return review.

The "New York Times" and the "Washington Post" report, citing the summary, that Trump and his wife Melania claimed high losses before and at the beginning of his presidency.

So they reported it

  • 2015 a loss of 31.74 million dollars,

  • 2016 down $32.19 million and

  • 2017 a minus of 12.82 million dollars.

After that, according to the committee, better years came.

  • The Trumps made about $24.4 million in profits in 2018

  • 2019 then 4.4 million dollars profit.

But in the Corona year 2020 they reported a loss of 4.69 million dollars.

What does the committee criticize?

In its report, the committee criticizes Trump for not being properly checked by the IRS during his presidency.

It was noted that in Trump's four-year tenure, only one mandatory audit had been initiated and not a single one had been completed.

The IRS only began reviewing Trump's 2016 tax returns on April 3, 2019, they said.

Trump had been in office for more than two years.

Just a few months earlier, the Democrats had taken control of the House of Representatives.

The committee's chairman, Richard Neal, then asked the IRS for information on Trump's tax returns.

The IRS has not yet commented on why Trump's tax return was checked late.

The committee also complains that the IRS staff commissioned with the audits did not call in specialists who could have assessed the complicated structure of Trump's company holdings.

According to the report, the IRS often opted for a limited audit.

The argument: Trump hired a professional accounting firm to ensure that Trump "correctly reports all income and deduction items."

The Committee criticizes this approach by the tax authorities.

"We do not agree with the decision not to involve specialists in highly complex tax returns," the report says: "We also do not understand why the fact that a lawyer and an auditing firm were involved in preparing the tax returns affects the accuracy of the returns guaranteed.«

How are the reactions?

After the vote, House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi announced the recommendation for a new law.

The committee's report shows that legislative steps must now be taken.

The new law would require the IRS to "conduct an annual audit of the president's finances," Pelosi said. "The American people deserve to know without a doubt that no one is above the law."

The Republicans on the committee had voted unanimously against the publication of the tax documents.

Accordingly, they criticized the result of the vote.

"Unfortunately, the deed is done," said Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the senior Republican member on the panel. "Over our objections, the Democrats in the Ways and Means Committee have unleashed a dangerous new political weapon that is undermining decades of privacy protections," he said.

Donald Trump has not yet made a public statement.

However, he had railed against a possible publication before the decision was made.

The tax records would say nothing about his "great company" with "some of the largest assets in the world and very little debt."

"You can't learn much from tax returns, but it's illegal to post them if they're not yours," he wrote on Truth Social, a network he co-founded.

What was previously known about Trump's tax practices?

Research by the New York Times in 2020 offered the first deep insight into Trump's financial circumstances and showed that he paid no federal income tax at all for years, only around $750 in 2016 and 2017.

It became clear that the Trump family had long been trying to avoid paying taxes, sometimes using questionable methods.

Recently, Trump's real estate company was found guilty of tax fraud, among other things.

According to the Washington Post, Trump paid around $2.1 million in taxes in 2018, compared to just $271,973 in 2020.

The New York Times writes that in the first three years of his tenure, Trump paid $1.1 million in federal income taxes.

When his income shrank and losses increased in 2020, he stopped paying income tax.

What about Trump's wealth?

Trump has always portrayed himself as a successful businessman - and conveyed this message to politics: he will use his negotiation skills to make the best deals.

Against this background, it is all the more interesting whether the tax documents confirm or refute this picture.

At least the financial losses shown in the committee's summary cast doubt on the image of a successful businessman.

Trump liked to portray himself as a self-made billionaire, although his statements about his fortune sometimes differed by billions of dollars within a short period of time and he testified in court under oath that the amount of his wealth fluctuated with his feelings.

It is clear that Trump did not achieve prosperity solely on his own.

Even as a child he had received a lot of money from his father.

According to a report in the New York Times, Trump had an annual income of $200,000 by the age of three and was a millionaire by the age of eight.

When Trump entered the 2016 presidential campaign, he put his fortune at $8.7 billion, which he later confidently rounded up to $10 billion.

But independent sources doubt the sum: On the "Forbes" list, his fortune is currently estimated at $ 3.2 billion.

However, Trump is said to be in debt with many hundreds of millions of dollars.

ptz/dpa/AP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-21

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