WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times.
Trump, who has guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid $750 in taxes to the federal government the year he was elected, 2016, and $750 again his first year in office, according to the report.
NewsNation was not able to immediately independently confirm the details of the New York Times report.
Trump addressed the report during a briefing Sunday evening at the White House.
“That’s fake news. It’s totally fake news, made up, fake,” said Trump. “We’re going through the same stories. You could’ve asked me the same questions four years ago; I had to litigate this and talk about it. [It is] totally fake news. Now, actually, I pay tax, but — and you’ll see that — as soon as my tax returns are… It’s under audit and they’ve been under audit for a long time.”
“If you look at the filings I have — I think I have a 108 pages of filings for all those different companies that do very well — obviously, because the filings,” added Trump. “Nobody talks about that. You will learn much more if you look at those filings that I have to file every single year, but you will learn much more. Those filings are very complete, they are very big, very powerful, they are very accurate. Those are the filings that you will learn much more — when it is done. When you’re under audit, you just do not release them,” said Trump.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on the report.
Garten told the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate.”
He said in a statement to the news organization that the president “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.”
In 2017, The White House said that Trump had paid $38 million in taxes on income of more than $150 million for 2005.
A White House spokesperson released this statement in 2017:
“Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required. That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that. Despite this substantial income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns. The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans.”