Andrew Harnik/AP
- Trump's tax returns were released by the House Ways and Means Committee after years of legal battles.
- Among the documents were the former president's personal and business returns from 2015 to 2020.
- They reveal details about years he paid more in foreign taxes than US income tax.
Donald Trump's tax returns, released by the House Ways and Means Committee today, revealed several years the former president paid more in foreign taxes than US income tax.
After years of ongoing legal battles in which Trump broke from decades of precedent and fought to keep his financial disclosures private, the hundreds of pages of newly released documents shed light on his international business dealings and financial ties.
Trump's filings showed he kept financial accounts in China, Ireland, and the United Kingdom from 2015 to 2017, even after he took office, AP reported. By 2018, he only reported the UK account.
The former president also reported income in more than a dozen countries including Azerbaijan, China, India, Panama, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. In several years, according to AP, he paid more in foreign taxes related to his international business dealings than he did in income tax to the United States.
AP reported Trump paid $641,931 in federal income taxes in 2015, as he began his campaign for president, but paid just $750 in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he paid nearly $1 million, he paid $133,445 in 2019, and nothing in 2020, the last year of returns that were released.
While the recently released tax documents reveal previously unknown information about the former president's finances, they are not proof of legal wrongdoing. Still, one expert told AP some of the details, such as claims of foreign tax credits and large write-offs, are worth a closer look by auditors.
"The return doesn't say, 'Guess what? I'm committing fraud,'" Daniel Shaviro, a taxation professor at New York University, told AP, "but there are red flags."
A summary report of the returns, released by the House Ways and Means Committee last week, revealed that the IRS failed to audit former President Trump during his first two years in office, despite an internal policy that mandates the review of presidential finances.
Audits only began after Committee Chairman, Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, requested a copy of the former president's taxes.
"This is a major failure of the IRS under the prior administration, and certainly not what we had hoped to find," Neal said in a statement releasing Trump's returns. "But the evidence is clear. Congress must step in. I've proposed legislation to put the program above reproach. Ensuring IRS conducts yearly, timely examinations while publicly disclosing certain information."
He added: "Our work has always been to ensure our tax laws are administered fairly and without preference, because at times, even the power of a president can loom too large."
Representatives for Trump and the House Ways and Means Committee did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
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