Trump's income taxes were often paltry, newly released documents show

Former President Donald Trump repeatedly paid little or nothing in federal income taxes between 2015 and 2020 despite reporting millions in earnings.

Documents released Tuesday night by House Democrats said Trump frequently made tens of millions of dollars annually during that period. But he was able to whittle away his tax bill by claiming steep business losses that offset that income.

In 2016, he paid $750. The following year he again paid just $750. In 2020, he paid nothing.

And though the IRS has a longstanding policy of automatically auditing every president, Democrats say the agency did not begin vetting Trump’s filings until they began asking about them in 2019.

Trump frequently claimed he was under continuous audits by the IRS to justify his refusal to voluntarily disclose his taxes, which snapped a longstanding tradition of presidents and White House contenders volunteering their returns.