Trump Reportedly Owes $72M to IRS and has Taken $73M from Foreign Investors/Governments

By: Sammy Quarrato

The President broke with tradition 4 years ago of releasing his tax returns. Credit: cnn.com

The President of the United States has paid $0 in federal income taxes in 10 out of the 15 past years and paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

He reportedly also received a $73 million refund from the IRS and has been under audit since 2011 where if he loses his fight with the IRS can result in him paying $100 million in damages while being $421 million in debt.

Just to put into perspective of how much this exposes the plutocratic tax system and overall system of governance we have in this country: the middle class is paying an effective income tax rate that is higher than what billionaires pay.

Undocumented immigrants have paid more in taxes than the ‘Leader of the Free World’— about $27.2 billion in 2017.

The majority of American people are rightfully furious that they are having the tax burden shifted on them by the president; about 68% of Americans according to a YouGov poll are angry that Trump paid only $750 in federal income tax.

Donald Trump had also paid about $70k for his hair during The Apprentice. That’s about 93 times more than what he paid in federal income tax in 2016 when he got elected.

Another exposure of the broken tax system made by both major parties is that the year 2019 was when earned income tax credit recipients, people who make between 14k-50k for the first time in American history, were being audited at a similar rate as those who were in the top 1%, according to ProPublica.

There’s even more serious revelations from his tax returns, such as him accepting $73 million from foreign investors/governments while running for president and eventually becoming president, many of which were from authoritarian governments.

He has taken $3 million from the Philippines, $2.3 million from India, and $1 million from Turkey, according to The New York Times.

Not only that, but according to Politifact, “Groups lobbying on behalf of the Saudi government spent $270,000 at Trump’s Washington hotel, according to a Washington Post investigation. The bill included some $190,000 for rooms, $78,000 spent on catering and $1,600 for parking, according to lobbyist filings.” 

“The bill was ultimately paid by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” as reported in the Post.

This was done right after the 2016 election and what soon followed in 2017 was $110 billion weapons deal with $350 billion worth of weapons going to Saudi Arabia in the next 10 years while the Saudi government is committing a genocide in Yemen and funding Sunni Fundamentalists, with many of them having ties to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and having funded 9/11.

And just to add the cherry on top, one of the few times where Congress was able to agree on bipartisan legislation that didn’t screw the people was when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Mike Lee (UT-R) agreed to use the War Powers Act to attempt to stop funneling money and weapons to the Saudi government due to them committing a genocide.

This was one of Trump’s few vetoes in office so far, and it’s definitely not a coincidence.

This is only from 2016 and 2017; it’s almost guaranteed that there’s even more money that the president took while in office. This makes him a national security threat with other issues such as his debt to Wall Street. 

This is a brazen violation of the Emolument Clause where a president has to commit to not accepting gifts, money, or business deals with any party or individual while in office.

President Jimmy Carter had a peanut farm which he sold to a blind trust before entering office due to the potential of foreign governments and special interests being able to funnel him money through it.

Another blatant tax fraud he committed is when he gave his daughter, Ivanka Trump, $700k for “consulting fees” with about $26 million that are unexplained.

The reasons stated and others are why Trump didn’t want to release his tax returns. He would have been attacked way more harshly than Romney when he released them, which showed he was paying a lower tax rate from stocks than the average school teacher or construction worker.

He rightfully should be attacked for this. The leak clearly shows he’s been carried by the American middle class from his tax fraud/avoidance, took bribes from foreign dictatorial governments, and foreign investors while claiming to be a populist.

He’s a fraud.