Trump's taxes: Takeaways from release of long-sought returns
In one of its last acts under Democratic control, the House of Representatives on Friday released six years of former President Donald Trump's tax returns, dating to 2015, the year he announced his presidential bid.
The thousands of pages of financial documents were the subject of a prolonged legal battle after Trump broke precedent in not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then occupying, the highest office in the land.
Some takeaways from a review of the documents:
A BANK ACCOUNT IN CHINA
The longtime real estate and media mogul with business interests on multiple continents was asked during a 2020 presidential debate about having a bank account in China. He said he closed it before he began his 2016 campaign for the White House.
"The bank account was in 2013. It was closed in 2015, I believe,” Trump said during the debate. “I was thinking about doing a deal in China. Like millions of other people, I was thinking about it. I decided not to do it.”
The tax returns, however, contradict that account. Trump reported a bank account in China in his tax returns for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The returns show accounts in other foreign countries over the years, including the United Kingdom, southern Ireland and the Caribbean island nation of St. Martin. By 2018, Trump had apparently closed all his overseas accounts other than the one in the U.K., home to one of his flagship golf properties.
The returns don't detail the amount of money held in those accounts.
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NO REPORTED CHARITABLE GIVING IN 2020
In the final year of his presidency, Trump reported making no charitable donations.
That was in contrast to the prior two years, when Trump reported making about $500,000 worth of donations. It’s unclear whether any of the figures include his pledge to donate his...
