Former President Donald Trump paid zero dollars in federal taxes in 2020, the year in which he lost the elections for his re-election, reveal his statements made public on Friday by Congress.
The House Ways and Means Committee, controlled by the Democratic Party, published its tax returns from 2015 to 2020, closing a long dispute with Trump, who had tried to judicially stop their publication.
The documents reveal that the Republican paid $642,000 in 2015, when he began his presidential run; but only $750 in both 2016 and 2017, his first year as a White House tenant.
In 2018 he paid close to a million dollars, in 2019 it was more than 133,000 dollars, but he paid zero dollars in 2020, the year in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump, who aspires to be a candidate again in 2024, had asked the Supreme Court to keep his statements secret, but the highest court in the United States rejected his request on November 22.
In addition, last week it was learned that the Department of the Treasury (IRS) did not audit Trump’s taxes during his first two years in office, 2017 and 2018, although it was required to do so, and did not start reviewing them until Congress asked him to. this information in 2019.
“A president is not an ordinary taxpayer. He has power and influence unlike any other American. And with great power comes even greater responsibility,” the chairman of the legislative committee, Democratic Congressman Richard Neal, said in a statement.
Trump lashed out on Friday in a statement against the publication of his statements, assuring that “Democrats should never have done it and the Supreme Court should never have approved it” because this practice will lead to “horrible things for a lot of people.”
However, the Republican argued that the few taxes paid over the years only show how “successful” he has been in using “tax deductions” and creating “thousands of jobs.”
The battle over those statements dates back to 2019, when the Ways and Means committee issued a legal subpoena to access that information as part of its investigation into possible tax violations by Trump.
He based the petition on a 1924 law that allows the leaders of certain congressional committees, including Ways and Means, to ask the US Treasury and Treasury Secretary to release any taxpayer’s tax returns.
Trump was the first US president since Gerald Ford not to publish his tax return every year, a tradition that his predecessors considered part of their duty of transparency and accountability to the people.
The United States House of Representatives last week approved a bill in favor of the tax returns of presidents being audited every year, after it was learned that Trump’s were not controlled by the Treasury in his first two years of office. mandate.
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