Fact Check: Trump Paid Tens of Millions of Dollars in Taxes

Claim: President Trump said he pays millions of dollars in federal income taxes.

Verdict: TRUE.

The New York Times this week reported that Trump paid tens of millions of dollars, amounting to at least $66 milllion, in taxes since 2000.
In taxes in seven of the years of tax returns the paper looked at Trump had tax billions in the millions thanks to the alternative minimum tax.

“Mr. Trump paid alternative minimum tax in seven years between 2000 and 2017 — a total of $24.3 million, excluding refunds he received after filing. For 2015, he paid $641,931, his first payment of any federal income tax since 2010,” the New York Times reported.

In Trump’s first two years in office, he filed for extensions for taxes on the prior years tax filing and paid estimated taxes on those. For 2016, he paid $1 million, according to the New York Times. The following year, Trump paid $4.2 million when he filed for an extension.

When Trump eventually filed his tax returns for those years, he said his tax liability should have been $750. In other words, Trump was saying he overpaid his taxes. The Times said that Trump was able to reduce his liability by using up tax credits he had earned in connection with the renovation of the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C.

The Times story also says that Trump did not get a refund for the overpayment. He just asked for credits that could be used to reduce future tax bills.

In some earlier years, Trump paid even more in taxes. According to the New York Times, Trump paid $13.3 million in 2008. In 2005 and 2006, he paid a total of $56.9 million.

His tax bill fell to zero in 2008, likely because of massive losses in the real estate sector. After the financial collapse of his Atlantic City casino operations, Trump sought and received a $70 million refund to recoup the losses. That refund, according to the Times, is what he has been fighting with the I.R.S. over for nearly a decade.