It is the end of a three-year soap opera finally decided by the Supreme Court. This Friday, a committee of the US House of Representatives – a team of parliamentarians dominated by Democrats – managed to make public Donald Trump’s tax returns, spread over a period that covers his time in the White House, to despite the opposition of the interested party.
Not in vain, the conclusion of the document drawn up on this occasion is no less spectacular: Donald Trump paid very few taxes before his term in office, as during this one.
Thus, the president of the United States paid a derisory sum in 2017 – the first year of his exercise of power – and got away with it in 2020, the year that marked the end of his stay at the top. In fact, he benefited from significant deductions, motivated by the heavy losses declared by Donald Trump with respect to his companies.
eye for details
If the finding is not a surprise in itself, it is that, as the CNN channel site reminds us here, a previous committee had already established that the businessman had argued painful blackboards to lighten his taxation, or even purely and simply avoid the tax. . simply.
But the report unveiled this Friday by the parliamentary commission – after it was able to get hold of the precious documents just a few weeks ago, and voted in mid-December in favor of their publication – details and figures both losses. alleged by Donald Trump, the consequent deductions and the amount of taxes paid for each year.
the New York Times, which analyzed the vast amount of data to its advantage, paints an eloquent picture of this relationship between Donald Trump and the federal tax administration. And this seems to be tinged with benevolence, to say the least: thus, according to the New York newspaper, in the last fifteen years, the billionaire with a thousand activities has evaded taxes… ten times.
Income, Loss, Deductions: The Trump Equation
But the parliamentary committee focused mostly on the 2015-2020 period, from the eve of his term until sunset. It shows, for example, that in 2016, once the deficits of his companies were removed from his income, Donald Trump showed a negative balance of $32,409,674. Under these conditions, the authority deducted $2,233,975 from its payroll initially set at $2,234,725. After a simple subtraction, Donald Trump had only $750 left.
For the year 2017, his first in the White House after his election the previous fall, Donald Trump’s finances presented a hole of $12,916,948. Same causes producing the same effects, Donald Trump then earned a new deduction, valued at $7,435,107. Forgotten the 7,435,857 claimed at the beginning, Donald Trump falls back on his feet and on his 750 dollars already disbursed twelve months before.
However, the following year he had to pay nearly a million dollars in taxes. But Donald Trump had something to reassure himself to the extent that his lights were green, down to $24,339,696. In 2019 he transferred another $133,445.
Tough on the electoral front -Donald Trump was defeated in November by Joe Biden in his re-election race-, 2020 was also tough on the business front. Because according to his statements, he lost $4,795,757 throughout the year. A setback that at least allowed him not to pay any taxes for this year.
The other trauma of Richard Nixon
Donald Trump, the 2024 presidential candidate, has long resisted the prospect of such unpacking, chaining appeals in hopes of avoiding disclosure of his tax returns. However, the publication of the document did not push him to disarm. Quoted by CNN, he denounced in a press release: “The Democrats should never have done such a thing, the Supreme Court should not have validated it, and it will lead to horrible things for a lot of people.”
Politically, however, his situation was difficult to maintain. In fact, in recent decades, all of his predecessors at the top of the state have agreed to release their tax returns. Already time. A tradition of transparency that is explained by an event that occurred 50 years ago. In 1973, the providence diary showed that, despite his estimated income of $200,000, President Richard Nixon had paid only $792.81 to the tax authorities in 1970. His troubles with the press were still not over, just months before his resignation in August. of 1974 precipitated by the Watergate case.
Source: BFM TV
