Days before House Democrats hand majority power to the Republicans, the Ways and Means Committee published six years of former President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns on Dec. 30, totaling thousands of pages. This comes one week after the Democratic-controlled committee published a summary of the Trump tax returns, which showed how the real estate billionaire mogul legally utilized the tax system by paying his taxes when he recorded an income and receiving refunds when he declared losses. So, did lawmakers reveal a smoking gun, or was it a nothingburger?
Trump Tax Returns: 2015 to 2020
Trump had become the first presidential candidate in years to refuse to release his taxes, going as far as filing a lawsuit against the Ways and Means Committee to keep them private. This legal pursuit failed after the Supreme Court ruled in the committee’s favor. Past US presidents have voluntarily published their tax information, but the left had suggested Trump had something to conceal by keeping his returns secret from the public.
Last month, the committee obtained the former president’s federal income tax documents for 2015 to 2020 and tax records regarding his businesses. Lawmakers first published a summary prepared by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). The panel then released all the individual and business Trump tax returns, which are the most detailed account of his finances, revealing how much he earned, how much he paid, what was declared, and other components of the process.
“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” Trump said in a statement after the summary was posted. “The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
It is unclear if there was anything odious regarding these returns. But, as the JCT had confirmed before Christmas, here is what Trump and his wife, Melania, declared:
- 2015: -$31.7 million income, $0 taxable income, and a federal income tax bill of $641,931.
- 2016: -$31.2 million income, $0 taxable income, and a $750 tax bill.
- 2017: -$12.8 million income, $0 taxable income, and a $750 tax bill.
- 2018: $24.4 million income, $22.9 million taxable income, and a tax bill just below $1 million.
- 2019: $4.4 million income, $2.97 million taxable income, and a tax bill of $133,445.
- 2020: -$4.69 million income, $0 taxable income, a $0 tax bill, and a refund of $5.47 million.
In a separate committee report, officials revealed that the IRS had initiated an audit of one of Trump’s tax returns (2021) while he was president. The 36-page report added that there was “no indication” that the Internal Revenue Service had designated any other returns for audit. Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), the committee chair, stated that the IRS failed to expand the mandatory audit program of the former president’s financial situation, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) confirming that the House “will move swiftly to advance Chairman Richard Neal’s legislation requiring the Internal Revenue Service to conduct an annual audit of the President’s finances.” The lower chamber passed the legislation, but the Senate failed to vote on the bill before adjourning for the year.
Donald Trump (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Republicans have largely criticized such efforts, warning that these measures could metastasize into political weapons employed against the opposition and average Americans. However, Democrats have claimed that homing in on the Trump tax returns was not malicious or punitive but instead about pursuing a goal of transparency.
Will the Left Find Something Nefarious?
In 2017, Trump attorneys Sheri Dillon and William Nelson revealed that he had received more than $100 million in income from Russian sources in single transactions: $12.2 million from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant and $95 million from a 2008 sale of his mansion in Florida to a Russian billionaire. However, the left has delved into conspiracy theories over the years. In 2017, The Atlantic hypothesized about how Trump could have earned money from Moscow, be it “pass-through companies” worldwide or Trump Organization assets. Likewise, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow ventured down a rabbit hole in 2017, suggesting that the real estate transaction with a Russian oligarch was a cover for an evil plot.
Ultimately, a preliminary assessment of the Trump tax returns showcased accountants and tax experts inserting gains, losses, and deductions, and using loopholes – a standard practice for billionaires with the resources to pay as little tax as possible.
