Donald, Melania Trump Paid Just $1,500 As Income Tax In Some Years, Report Reveals — And Raises Eyebrows

Donald and Melania Trump paid just a total of $1,500 in income taxes for 2016 and 2017, according to a new report by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.

What Happened: The report was posted online shortly after the House Ways and Means Committee voted to make public Trump’s full income tax returns, parts of which have been redacted. Also made public were the returns of eight related business entities, reported CNBC.

Past tax returns reveal that the former president and first lady declared negative income for 2015,2016, 2017, and 2020. 

In 2020, Trump and Melania claimed a refund of $5.47 million and paid no income tax, according to the report. In 2019, they declared $2.97 million in taxable income and paid $133,445 in taxes.

Remarkably in 2016 and 2017, the couple declared negative income of $31.2 million and $12.8 million, with $0 in taxable income. They paid $750 each for the two years in taxes.

Why It Matters: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service subjected the tax returns of both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to audits but failed to audit Trump during his first two years in office, despite it being a requirement, reported The New York Times, citing House Committee revelations.

The report from the Ways and Means Committee indicates that IRS first began auditing Trump in April 2019, the same day Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) made inquiries. Neal is also the Chair of the Committee, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the IRS is yet to finish its audit and only assigned a single agent to go through Trump’s tax returns. Trump reportedly objected to the addition of more people to the task.

The IRS was run by an Obama-appointed commissioner, John Koskinen, for most of 2017 and later the former president appointed David Kautter to the post. Both didn’t ensure that the audits of the presidential tax returns were made, according to the report. 

“The IRS was asleep at the wheel, and the presidential audit program is broken,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore). Wyden is the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, reported the Times.

The committee sought Trump’s tax returns for three and a half years. The returns were given to the panel by the Supreme Court in November.

This story was originally published on Dec. 24, 2022.

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