Donald Trump Paid No Income During Final Year Of His Presidency, Reported Losses In Office

Donald Trump paid no income tax during the final full year of his presidency as he noted a loss from his sprawling business interests, according to tax figures released by a congressional panel. 

The records, sent out late on Tuesday by the Democratic-led House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee after a years-long fight, show that Trump's income, and his tax liability, varied dramatically during his four years in the White House. 

The records trim against the Republican ex-president's long-cultivated image as a successful businessman as he mounted another proposal for the White House.

Trump and his wife, Melania, paid some form of tax during all four years, the records revealed but were able to minimise their income taxes in several years as income from Trump's companies was more than counterbalanced by deductions and losses.

The committee asked about the legality of some of those deductions, comprising one for $916 million, and members said on Tuesday the tax returns were brief on details. The panel is anticipated to release edited versions of his total returns.

Trump declined to make his tax returns public during his two presidential bids and campaign for office, even though all other major-party presidential contenders have done so for decades.

The committee acquired the records after a years-long fight and voted on Tuesday to make them public.

A Trump spokesman said the discharge of the papers was politically encouraged.

Trump Organization spokesman Steven Cheung said on Wednesday that if this unfairness can happen to "President Trump," it can happen to all Americans without reason. 

Democrats on the panel said their assessment found that tax authorities did not satisfactorily scrutinise Trump's complicated tax returns to assure accurateness.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is considered to audit presidents' tax returns yearly, but it did not do so until Democrats pressed for action in 2019.

The IRS appointed only one agent to the audit most of the time, and the panel found and did not analyze some of the deductions declared by Trump.

Before taking office, Trump reported heavy losses for many years from his business to compensate for hundreds of millions of dollars in income, according to media reports and trial testimony about his finances.

The documents discharged by the committee demonstrated that the pattern continued during his time in the White House.

During that time, Trump and his wife were responsible for self-employment and household employment taxes. As a result, they paid USD 3 million in taxes over those four years.

But deductions allowed them to minimize their income tax liability for several years.

In 2017, Trump and his wife conveyed adjusted gross income of negative USD 12.9 million, directing to a net income tax of USD 750, the records showed.

They jotted down an adjusted gross income of USD 24.3 million in 2018 and paid a net tax of USD 1 million, while in 2,019, they said USD 4.4 million in revenue in 2019 and paid USD 134,000 in taxes.

In 2020, they notified a loss of USD 4.8 million and paid no net income tax.

(With Reuters input)