Trump's big beautiful income tax dodge

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Trump’s big beautiful income tax dodge
The president's settlement with the Justice Department means he could never face IRS audits again

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published May 25, 2026 9:30AM (EDT)


(Salon During the 2016 presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the former secretary of state claimed that Trump, despite his alleged fortune, had reportedly not paid any income tax. In response, Trump smugly quipped, “That makes me smart.” Enough people apparently agreed that vastly wealthy people are entitled to keep every last penny for themselves — rather than pay their fair share into the system that made their wealth possible — because Trump was elected president just a few weeks later.

Even then, it was clear that Trump’s reputation as a brilliant businessman was largely manufactured by his own relentless self-promotion, along with a talented reality show producer who put him on television. But it was and remains true: Most wealthy people and many corporations pay little or no income tax by manipulating the system in perfectly legal ways. Trump was one of them.

Since every major party presidential candidate had voluntarily released their tax returns over the past four decades, it was assumed he would follow suit. But despite promising to do so, Trump claimed his returns were under audit and they could not be turned over until the process concluded. Experts said there was no such rule, but as with so many other things, Trump just kept saying it and, eventually, journalists and pundits stopped asking. But between 2018 and 2020, an Internal Revenue Service contractor leaked a large number of wealthy Americans’ tax returns to the media, and Trump’s was among them. (Under President Biden, the Justice Department prosecuted the contractor, who is currently in federal prison.)

....(snip)....

The numbers revealed in black-and-white why Trump didn’t want the public to see his returns: It appeared he wasn’t so smart after all. In the 18 years of returns the Times examined, Trump engaged in tax avoidance to a far greater extent than most affluent Americans, or the top 0.001% of tax filers.

....(snip)....

There you have it. It’s fair to suspect the IRS did find that Trump owed the government in excess of $100 million, and this is the backdoor way of ensuring that he will never have to pay it. Experts say this means he and his family are immune from any tax audits — and from any claims from other government agencies “that were pending or could have been pending” by the date the agreement was signed. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/25/trumps-big-beautiful-income-tax-dodge/