Joe Biden portrays Donald Trump as tax dodger after new revelations

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, painted Donald Trump as a tax dodger after the revelation that the US president paid no federal income taxes for many of the past 20 years and only $750 in his first year in office.

Hours after The New York Times reported that Mr Trump had often avoided paying taxes by offsetting his business losses against his tax liabilities, Mr Biden launched an advertisement comparing the president’s payments to those made by ordinary Americans.

In a video posted on Twitter, the Biden campaign said elementary schoolteachers typically paid more than $7,000 a year in income tax while firefighters paid more than $5,000, and nurses paid more than double that.

The Biden campaign later created an online tax calculator that allowed voters to calculate how much more tax they paid than the president in 2017.

The New York Times said Mr Trump had paid $750 in 2016 when he was running for the presidency and the same again during his first year in office in 2017, while paying nothing at all in 11 out of the 18 years that it reviewed.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, said the revelations provided “a window into the extraordinary measures that President Trump has used to game the tax code and avoid paying his fair share of taxes”.

In an interview with NBC television, Ms Pelosi also said the fact that Mr Trump reportedly had $300m in loans that would come due during his second term if he won re-election was a “national security issue” because it might give foreign actors leverage over the president.

Republicans were mostly silent about the revelations, which came as Mr Trump and Mr Biden prepared to participate in the first presidential debate on Tuesday.

During a debate in the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton, the then-Democratic presidential candidate, claimed Mr Trump did not want to publish his tax returns because he had not paid federal tax. “That makes me smart,” he responded.

Mr Trump pledged during that campaign to release his returns, following a tradition that has existed since the presidency of Richard Nixon, but he later backtracked, claiming that he could not publish them because he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

The president on Monday responded to the New York Times report by claiming that it was “fake news” and based on “illegally-obtained information”. He said that he had paid “millions of dollars in taxes” and was entitled to depreciation and tax credits “like everyone else”.

Mr Biden, who has released more than 20 years of his tax returns, earlier this year said the public “deserve to know what this president is hiding”.

Mr Trump’s finances have been the subject of intense interest ever since he launched his presidential campaign in 2015. While he has invoked the audit to defend his decision not to publish his filings, his own IRS commission last year said there was no rule that prevented the president from releasing returns that were still under audit.

His wealth and overseas business dealings have also been the subject of questions about possible conflicts of interest and the potential that foreign powers could seek to influence him.

As details of his taxes have trickled out in media reports and testimony from former aides, additional questions have emerged about whether Mr Trump has improperly avoided taxes and manipulated the stated value of his assets to obtain loans or reduce tax liabilities.

The New York Times reported in 2018 that much of his wealth was given to him by his father in transfers that involved “dubious tax schemes” to avoid inheritance taxes.

Democratic lawmakers in Congress have sought copies of his tax records since retaking control of the House after the 2018 midterm election, but have so far been unsuccessful.

Trump vs Biden: who is leading the 2020 election polls?

Use the FT’s interactive calculator to see which states matter most in winning the presidency

Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, refused to hand over the president’s tax information to the House ways and means committee, which has authority to review individual tax returns, sparking a lawsuit.

Mr Trump also sued to stop his lenders, Deutsche Bank and Capital One, and his accountant, Mazars USA, giving several other House committees his returns in response to congressional subpoenas.

Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, has also sought Mr Trump’s tax returns as part of a criminal investigation. Mr Trump has fought in court to prevent Mr Vance obtaining the information.

Earlier this year the Supreme Court issued a mixed ruling on the president’s efforts to block the congressional subpoenas and Mr Vance’s efforts. Though the court rejected Mr Trump’s claims of immunity from investigation, it sent the litigation back to lower courts, effectively delaying any final resolution until after the November 3 election.

Follow Demetri Sevastopulo and Kadhim Shubber on Twitter 

Watch the Trump-Biden debate live with the FT

Want to watch the debates alongside your favourite FT columnists? On Tuesday evening, join Swamp Notes columnists Ed Luce and Rana Foroohar, along with Peter Spiegel, for real-time context and shrewd analysis. On the FT.com homepage from 7pm ET.