Trump Paid No Federal Income Tax In 10 Of Last 15 Years, And When He Did, It Wasn't Much: NYT

The year Donald Trump won the presidential election, he paid $750 in federal income taxes, according to a New York Times report. The next year — his first as a resident of the White House — the tax amount didn't change.

What Happened: The president paid no federal income taxes at all in 10 out of the latest 15 years, as he reported losing more money than he made, according to the Times.

Trump is also facing an audit from the Internal Revenue Service centering around a $72.9 million tax refund, which he received after claiming huge losses. An adverse audit ruling could cost the president more than $100 million, as per the Times.

The tax returns allegedly also reveal that the president didn't pay back $287 million since 2010 to his lenders.

The Times scoop is based on much sought-after tax-return data from over two decades but doesn't include personal returns for 2018 and 2019.

Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten reportedly claimed that most of the Times report is based on facts that “appear to be inaccurate.”

Garten said that Trump had paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal taxes which included “millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015.”

Why It Matters: The Times, in a 2019 report, claimed that every year between 1985 to 1994 Trump reported negative adjusted gross income on his tax returns, which grew as new losses were added to the preceding years.

The newspaper alleged that Trump used the stacked-up losses as a tax avoidance coupon — using previous years' losses to claim exemptions and refunds.

Trump refused to release his tax returns when he contested for the presidency and only a few pages of his tax returns have since reportedly become public.

The reveal comes just two days before the first presidential debate, which is scheduled to be held in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday.

Trump denied the accuracy of the Times report in a Sunday briefing at the White House. "I pay a lot, and I pay a lot in state income taxes," he said, according to CNN.

Photo courtesy: Gage Skidmore via Flickr