The House Ways and Means Committee has opted to release information from several years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, including both personal and business filings, and besides insight from panel members and a Congressional body called the Joint Committee on Taxation, copies of the documents themselves — sans identifying private information — are also coming soon.
What is already available shows a series of potential signs of deception, including a deduction claimed for a conservation easement at a Trump property in Westchester County, New York, that is already among the subjects of a civil investigation into Trump and his business by New York state Attorney General Letitia James. Available information also indicates that Trump kept his personal tax bills sometimes dramatically low — paying nothing in 2020, the final full year of his presidency, and claimed repeatedly massive losses in the tens of millions of dollars. Trump also went two years of his presidency without audits from the IRS, despite an agency policy outlining more consistent audits of every president, no matter who they are. The Joint Committee expressed concerns about tens of millions of dollars in Trump’s deductions covering business expenses specifically during his presidency and more.
Large losses Trump claimed provided him with benefits on his personal taxes for years. In both 2016 and 2017, his personal tax bill was only $750. Considering the guilty verdict on all counts recently reached against his company for a tax evasion scheme involving high-dollar benefits provided to executives, he can’t just claim his business tax filings were expansive enough that he wasn’t just skating by without paying what reasonably covered his share, a concept that President Joe Biden has discussed.
As for further specifics, Trump reported earnings above $50 million in 2015 — but he also reported over $85 million in losses. That year, the large losses weren’t enough to wipe away his bill, and his personal tax liabilities still reached some $642,000. In 2016, one of the years his personal tax bill was $750, he reported $30 million in income and $60 million in losses. In 2018, he ended up with a high personal bill, reaching nearly $1 million. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who has led the Ways and Means Committee through years of litigation in which the panel eventually obtained Trump’s returns per federal rules allowing Congressional leaders including the panel chair to access anyone’s returns, is promoting legislation that would force prompt audits by the IRS of presidential finances, starting within 90 days of a new commander-in-chief taking office.
As for potential consequences, James already said she would provide information she garnered in investigating Trump to federal authorities, including the IRS. Other points of concern include private jet expenses claimed on the returns and payments to Trump’s children. Separately, eight loans Trump didn’t initially include on his financial disclosure forms filed as president were recently outlined in Forbes — a list including millions to his three most prominent adult children.
