President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times.
Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid no federal income taxes in 11 of the past 18 years.
The details of the tax filings complicate Trump's description of himself as a shrewd and patriotic businessman, revealing instead a series of financial losses and income from abroad that could come into conflict with his responsibilities as president. His financial disclosures indicated he earned at least $434.9 million in 2018, but the tax filings reported a $47.4 million loss.
The disclosure, which the Times said comes from tax return data it obtained extending over two decades, comes at a pivotal moment ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday and weeks before a divisive election against Democrat Joe Biden.
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Speaking at a news conference Sunday at the White House, Trump dismissed the report as "fake news" and maintained he has paid taxes, though he gave no specifics.
He repeated his stance to share his tax returns only after an audit is finished.
"First of all, I've paid a lot and I've paid a lot of state income taxes too," Trump said.
"The story is a total fake," he said.
He vowed that information about his taxes "will all be revealed," but he offered no timeline for the disclosure; he made similar promises during the 2016 campaign on which he never followed through.
In fact, the president has fielded court challenges against those seeking access to his returns, including the U.S. House, which is suing for access to Trump's tax returns as part of congressional oversight.
FINDINGS
According to the Times story:
• Trump has managed to avoid taxes while enjoying the lifestyle of a billionaire -- which he claims to be -- in which his companies cover the costs of many personal expenses.
• Trump may be the wealthiest U.S. president in history. Yet he has often paid less in taxes than other recent presidents. Barack Obama and George W. Bush each regularly paid more than $100,000 a year -- and sometimes much more -- in federal income taxes while in office.
Trump, by contrast, is running a federal government to which he has contributed almost no income tax revenue in many years.
• Taxes on wealthy Americans have declined sharply over the past few decades, and many use loopholes to reduce their taxes below the statutory rates. But most affluent people still pay a lot of federal income tax.
In 2017, the average federal income rate for the highest-earning 0.001% of tax filers -- that is, the most affluent 1/100,000th slice of the population -- was 24.1%, according to the IRS.
Over the past two decades, Trump has paid about $400 million less in combined federal income taxes than a very wealthy person who paid the average for that group each year.
• Trump did face large tax bills after the initial success of "The Apprentice" television show, but he erased most of these tax payments through a refund.
Combined, Trump initially paid almost $95 million in federal income taxes over the 18 years. He later managed to recoup most of that money, with interest, by applying for and receiving a $72.9 million tax refund, starting in 2010.
The refund reduced his total federal income tax bill between 2000 and 2017 to an annual average of $1.4 million. By comparison, the average American in the top 0.001% of earners paid about $25 million in federal income taxes each year over the same span.
FOREIGN INCOME
During his first two years as president, Trump received $73 million from foreign operations, which in addition to his golf properties in Scotland and Ireland included $3 million from the Philippines, $2.3 million from India and $1 million from Turkey.
The president in 2017 paid $145,400 in taxes in India and $156,824 in the Philippines, compared with just $750 in U.S. income taxes.
Trump found multiple ways to reduce his tax bills. He has taken tax deductions on personal expenses such as housing, aircraft and $70,000 to style his hair while he filmed "The Apprentice." Losses in the property businesses solely owned and managed by Trump appear to have offset income from his stake in the TV show and other entities with multiple owners.
During the first two years of his presidency, Trump relied on business tax credits to reduce his tax obligations. The Times said $9.7 million worth of business investment credits that were submitted after Trump requested an extension to file his taxes allowed him to reduce his income and pay just $750 each in 2016 and 2017.
Income tax payments help finance the military and domestic programs.
Trump, starting in 2010, claimed and received an income tax refund that totaled $72.9 million, which the Times said was at the core of an ongoing audit by the IRS. The Times said a ruling against Trump could cost him $100 million or more. He also has more than $300 million in loans due to be repaid in the next four years.
LAWMAKER RESPONDS
Richard Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who has tried unsuccessfully to obtain Trump's tax records, said the Times report makes it even more essential for his committee to get the documents.
"It appears that the President has gamed the tax code to his advantage and used legal fights to delay or avoid paying what he owes," Neal wrote in a statement.
"Now, Donald Trump is the boss of the agency he considers an adversary. It is essential that the IRS's presidential audit program remain free of interference," Neal said.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on the report.
Garten told the Times that "most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate."
He said in a statement that the president "has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015."
The New York Times said it declined to provide Garten with the tax filings in order to protect its sources.
During his first general election debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton said that perhaps Trump wasn't releasing his tax returns because he had paid nothing in federal taxes.
Trump interrupted her to say, "That makes me smart."
$750 BILL
Among the key findings of The Times' investigation:
• Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years that The Times examined. In 2017, after he became president, his tax bill was only $750.
• He has reduced his tax bill with questionable measures, including a $72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service.
• Many of his signature businesses, including his golf courses, report losing large amounts of money -- losses that have helped him to lower his taxes.
• The financial pressure on him is increasing as hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed are soon coming due.
• Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received "consulting fees" that also helped reduce the family's tax bill.
• As president, he has received more money from foreign sources and U.S. interest groups than previously known. The records do not reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia.
It is important to remember that the returns are not an unvarnished look at Trump's business activity. They are instead his own portrayal of his companies, compiled for the IRS. But they do offer the most detailed picture yet available.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Boak of The Associated Press; by David Leonhardt of The New York Times; and by Jordan Fabian of Bloomberg News.