US President Donald Trump, Image credit: PTI
Washington: US President Donald Trump did not pay his income tax for 10 of the 15 years before the 2016 election, and only $750 the year he ran for the presidency and in his first year in the White House, a media report has revealed.
The New York Times newspaper revealed this information on Sunday after obtaining Trump's tax information for the last 20 years, The Hill news website reported.
The Times said it reviewed tax returns relating to the President and the companies owned by the Trump Organization going back to the 1990s, as well as his personal returns for 2016 and 2017, reports the BBC.
It said the President paid just $750 in income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, while he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the past 15 years, "largely because he reported losing much more money than he made".
In a statement to the New York Times, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said that "most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate".
"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," Garten was quoted as saying to the newspaper.
Later in the day during a White House briefing, Trump denied the allegation and called the report "totally fake news".
"Actually I paid tax. And you'll see that as soon as my tax returns - it's under audit, they've been under audit for a long time," the BBC quoted the President as saying.
"The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) does not treat me well they treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS, they treat me very badly," he added.
Trump has faced legal challenges for refusing to share documents concerning his fortune and business. He is the first US President since the 1970s not to make his tax returns public, though this is not required by law.
Meanwhile, an ad released by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign slammed Trump over The New York Times' revelation, The Hill news website repored.
Without any narration, the ad released on Twitter late Sunday night, features the faces of a number of American taxpayers and their corresponding tax burdens, before comparing their payments to the $750 reportedly paid by Trump during his first year in office.
Other Democrats also took to social media to slam Trump.
In a tweet, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said: "Donald Trump paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017. He knows better than anyone that there's one set of rules for the wealthy and giant corporations and another for hardworking Americans—and instead of using his power to fix it, he's taken advantage of it at every turn."
Also taking to the micro-blogging site, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wrote: "Shock of shocks. Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, received a $72.9 million tax refund from the IRS while not paying a nickel in federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years.
"Yep. Trump l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else."