Federal tax returns for former President Donald Trump and business entities associated with him that were released on Friday following an earlier vote by a tax committee in the House, which prevailed after several years of legal maneuvers over the docs, show Trump maintained foreign bank accounts while in office, including an account in China existing at least three years. That 2015-2017 span includes a year of his presidency.
A lawyer associated with the ex-president previously tied the Chinese account, which Donald didn’t include on financial disclosure filings as president, to Trump International Hotels Management, another Trump family business entity. Lawyer Alan Garten of the Trump family business characterized company efforts as largely unsuccessful, although the entity paid $188,561 in Chinese taxes from 2013 to 2015. “No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said of that entity’s Chinese operation. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.” He tied it to paying local taxes the company owed.
Available records also show Trump paying more in foreign taxes for 2017 than the $750 he paid in federal income taxes that year. His total in foreign tax payments for that year alone reached nearly $1 million. Domestically, the returns also raise questions about the circumstances surrounding very low and suspiciously even interest payments he reported in connection to loans he provided his children, suggesting at least a possibility the claimed loans were better classed as gifts, which could leave the transactions subject to different tax rules — and it’s those providing a gift who normally pay the gift tax, which in this case would mean another avenue of Trump securing potentially corrupt drops in what he’d be paying authorities.
Every year of his presidential term, Trump claimed he was provided $18,000 in interest from his daughter Ivanka and $8,715 from Donald Trump Jr. that covered the same. “It’s unusual to have interest in round numbers – very rare,” Martin Sheil, a former supervisory special agent for a criminal investigation unit at the IRS told CNN of the tax filings. “An auditor would want to see payments, loan agreements and interest rates.” The docs also don’t show the now former president claiming any charitable deductions at all for 2020, which could leave some wondering whether he followed through on past promises to donate his presidential salary. Trump paid no personal income taxes for 2020 after he claimed losses substantially ahead of his stated income. Serious questions are also lingering about the handling by the IRS of potential misconduct. During his presidency, Trump reportedly wasn’t placed under an audit — mandatory or not — until 2019, despite an agency policy outlining more consistent audits of every president.
Early last year, the federal tax agency reportedly informed the ex-president’s team of newly established audits of his 2017 and 2018 filings. Trump and Republican allies of his have already raised the prospect of political retaliation and complained about precedents established here, but presidential contenders already ordinarily released their personal tax records for the public, so for those seeking the White House it’s not much of a threat.
