“Uncovering Donald Trump’s Federal Tax Returns: An Analysis of His Income Tax Liability and Net Operating Losses”

CNN —

Six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns were released on Friday, showing the former president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last year of his presidency, claiming huge losses that helped limit his tax bill. Trump maintained the returns, which he fought to keep hidden, showed how successful he had been in using depreciation and other tax deductions to create jobs and structures.

The documents, published by the House Ways and Means Committee, were the culmination of years of legal wrangling and speculation about what might be contained in the filings. The committee’s top Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, called the release of the documents “unprecedented,” and said Democrats had unleashed “a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president, overturning decades of privacy protections for average Americans.”

Trump reported millions in negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. The documents showed that Trump had paid $38 million in federal income tax on more than $150 million in income.

A New York Times investigation showed that Trump had claimed huge net operating losses that he was allowed to carry forward and apply to future tax years, which greatly reduced or simply wiped out his annual income tax liability. The analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation noted that Trump carried forward $105 million in losses on his 2015 return, $73 million in 2016, $45 million in 2017 and $23 million in 2018.

Trump also fought unsuccessfully to keep his tax information out of the hands of investigators in New York, who were probing his business practices. The legislation is not expected to be taken up by the Senate before the new Congress is sworn in.