Trump paid $750 in tax in US in 2016, 2017; his businesses paid $1,45,400 in tax in India in 2017

US President Donald Trump, who is fighting for re-election for a second term, paid only $750 per year in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, a blockbuster investigative report by The New York Times (NYT) said. In 2017, interestingly, his businesses paid $145,400 in taxes in India, the report added. The NYT report said that the journalists accessed the president’s previously undisclosed tax information.

Trump, however, brushed off the news as fake. “It’s fake news,” Trump told the press at a news meet in the White House. “It’s totally fake news. Made up. Fake,” he said when asked to comment on the report.

He went on to add, “Actually, I paid tax, but - and you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns - it’s under audit.”

The NYT report claimed that in 2017, Trump’s businesses paid substantially more taxes in countries like Panama ($15,598) and in the Philippines ($156,824).

The NYT report said Trump had not paid any tax at all in 10 of the 15 years before becoming the President as the businesses showed losses. “He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made,” the NYT report said.

Whether the report dampens Trump’s prospects in the November election is a matter of speculation. Hardcore Trump supporters may rarely been swayed by negative news about the President in the past. However, a NYT/Sienna College nationwide poll that was published on September 27, showed Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden leading Trump by eight percentage points among likely voters. Biden found strong support from independents, women and college-educated white voters, the poll found out.

Trump’s tax returns have been a closely guarded secret ever since he became the US President. Trump is currently engaged in a decade-long legal battle with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which has challenged the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that Trump claimed and received after declaring huge losses. “If he loses that battle, he could be stuck with a bill for more than $100 million,” the NYT report said..