United States: what Trump's tax returns reveal

Little Trump's illustrated Bible?

After a long legal battle, yet another, former President Donald Trump's tax returns were made public on Friday by a US parliamentary committee with the support of the Supreme Court.

More than 2,700 pages of personal statements from Donald and Melania Trump from 2015 to 2020 and more than 3,000 pages of statements from his companies are now accessible, while the New York businessman was the first candidate for the White House to refuse to publish his statements.

In a video statement, Trump criticized the release of these documents: "The Democrats should never have done it, the Supreme Court should never have approved it" and that will only lead to one thing: "the America's great divide will now get significantly worse,” he said.

The video is accompanied by a link to fund his new campaign.

And Trump remaining Trump, he also concludes that the data revealed demonstrates his incomparable success in business, allowing "the creation of thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and companies".

Truly ?

Above all, the documents show that Trump's income and tax liabilities fluctuated dramatically during his first run for president and his tenure, and that he and Melania relied on large debts to obtain considerable deductions from their federal taxes, including $105 million in 2015 and $73 million in 2016. In 2017, the first year of his effective presidency, Trump only paid $750 in taxes in Washington thanks to the optimization of an entire system of deductions and losses.

With an adjusted deficit of $4.8 million, he didn't even pay any federal income tax in 2020. And that's not the only oddity included in the documents.

Large payments received from his children.

Each year of his presidency, according to US media who have begun to sift through the data, Donald Trump said he received $18,000 in interest on a loan granted to his daughter Ivanka Trump and $8,715 in interest from his son Donald Trump Jr. From 2017 to 2019, Eric Trump would have paid his father $24,000, then $19,605 in 2020. The American system authorizes loans between parents and children, but at the market rate and on the condition of not using this "generosity" for tax reduction purposes.

This is why round numbers are surprising.

Too perfect numbers.

Precisely, it might seem like a mania, these round numbers.

In 2017, DJT Aerospace LLC, which operates Trump's personal helicopter, reported $42,965 in revenue.

And $42,965 in salaries, fuel, maintenance.

Zero income = zero taxes.

Amazing generosity and no donations in 2020.

Calling himself a billionaire, Trump promised he would donate his entire $400,000 annual salary to charity.

"Although the press doesn't like to write about it, and I don't need them to, I donate my annual presidential salary of $400,000 to various agencies throughout the year" , he tweeted in March 2019. He made significant donations to charities in 2018 and 2019 but in 2020, the last year of his presidency, his tax return does not list any donations.

In addition, Trump's statements refer to large cash donations to reduce his taxes, which there is no evidence of.

In 2015, the tycoon also claimed a deduction of $21.1 million from his tax bill, for giving 64 of the 86 hectares of his Seven Springs estate in North Castle (New York State) to a land trust.

This donation is at the center of a criminal investigation launched in Manhattan on the finances of the Trump Organization.

Foreign bank accounts.

Between 2015 and 2017, during the campaign, Trump held a bank account in China, and until 2020 accounts were maintained in several countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland.

In 2020, when Trump's campaign team sought to convince Americans that his rival Joe Biden was a China "puppet", the New York Times revealed the existence of this bank account;

the lawyer of the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, had then justified the need for it by the commercial growth of the hotels of Trump in the country.

Result: while in 2017, Trump only paid $750 in federal income tax, he paid nearly $1 million in taxes to foreign countries through his companies.

In addition to the UK, Ireland and China, money has been paid to Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada, India, Qatar, South Korea, Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, in Grenada, U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, Georgia, Israel, Brazil, St. Maarten, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, and St. Vincent.

In early December, the Trump Organization was found guilty of financial and tax fraud after a trial in New York where the former Republican president was not tried.

The publication of these documents, which show that the agency in charge of controls exercised very little of its prerogatives, could give rise to other legal proceedings.