Donald Trump Reportedly Paid $750 in Income Taxes in 2016 and 2017

In a bombshell report that dropped Sunday, the New York Times detailed Donald Trump's long-evasive tax returns, spanning over two decades. The most damning part of the report reveals that Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Nor did he pay a cent in income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years.

The NYT was unable to gain access to his personal returns for 2018 or 2019.

“Over the past decade, President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015,” Alan Garten, lawyer for the Trump Organization, said in a statement, in response to the Times’ report.

The NYT suggests Garten’s stance on Trump paying his personal taxes takes into account such things as Social Security and Medicare, which he has paid. Garten argues some of what his client owed was “paid with tax credits,” which the NYT calls “a misleading characterization of credits.”

The NYT suspects Trump has managed to pay a smaller amount than most working Americans by reporting that he has lost more money than he has earned. As you can imagine, continual losses have left Trump in having hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, which is coming due. There is mention of the IRS audit that Trump constantly alludes to, which is over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. If he’s found to be in the wrong, it could cost him more than $100 million.

The NYT executive editor explained his paper's reasoning for publishing the report.

When asked about the report during his Sunday presser, Trump returned to his typical, tired talking points, calling the findings “fake news."