The House Ways and Means Committee has officially released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
The committee voted last week to make Trump’s returns public with redactions to certain sensitive information. The panel has attempted to obtain Trump’s records since 2019, but Trump repeatedly fought to block its request in court.
Here is everything we have learned about Trump’s finances before and during his presidency.
The tax returns show that Trump’s businesses declared exponential losses and he paid little to no tax on these companies for multiple years. The most significant losses were when Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign.
AFP / Brendan Smialowski
On Melania and Donald Trump’s joint tax return in 2016, the first couple declared a negative income of $32.2 million, recorded $0 taxable income, and paid only $750 in total taxes.
The couple filed a similar return in 2017, declaring a negative income of $12.8 million, $0 in taxable income, and again paid only $750 in taxes.
In 2018, they did not declare a negative income but did say they made $22.9 million in taxable income and paid $999,466 in federal income taxes.
The Trumps declared $2.97 million in taxable income in 2019 and paid $133,445 in taxes.
Finally, in 2020 the Trumps again declared a negative income of $4.69 million, paid no income tax but did receive a refund of $5.47 million.
More than 150 of his business entities listed negative income or significant losses. The IRS defines negative business income as “the net amount of qualified items of income, gain, deduction and loss from any qualified trade or business.”
His golf course Trump Turnberry Scotland showed a $12 million loss every year until the final year of his presidency. His Washington, D.C. hotel lost more than $70 million while he was in office.
Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
In a statement released Friday, Trump criticized the House panel for releasing the returns but said the returns demonstrate his entrepreneurial success and “once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”
The entirety of Trump’s individual and business tax returns can be found here.
