President Donald Trump has requested an extension from the IRS in filing his 2016 tax returns, the White House confirmed on Saturday, though no reason was given for the request.
President Donald Trump has requested an extension from the IRS in filing his 2016 tax returns, it was reported on Saturday.
The White House announced the extension on Saturday, though no reason was given.
News of the extension was first reported by NBC News .
In the run-up to the presidental election, Trump became the first presidential candidate since Richard Nixon’s era to refuse to disclose his tax returns.
He claimed at the time that his tax returns could not be released because he was under audit, although the IRS said there was no legal restriction on releasing taxes while under audit.
Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns has been cited by critics who say the president may be trying to conceal aspects of his finances.
Ethics officials have speculated that Trump may be hesitant to release his tax returns since they would shed light on potential conflicts of interests.
In March, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow obtained a copy of Trump’s 2005 tax returns.
The returns showed that during that year, Trump earned $253million, but wrote off $103million as losses, enabling him to pay significantly less tax.
The information gleaned from the first two pages of Trump’s 1040 forms revealed that the former real estate mogul paid $38million in income tax.
Money came from the sale of two New York properties to the Chinese as well as a salary from The Apprentice, which had premiered the previous year.
The documents show Trump and wife Melania paid $5.3million in regular federal income tax, at a very low rate of less than 3.5 percent.
Trump also paid $31 million in the ‘alternative minimum tax, ‘ which is something that the president has previously said he wanted to abolish.
That’s an effective federal tax rate of 24.2 per cent in 2005, compared with 13.5 per cent paid by Bernie Sanders in 2014 and 14.1 per cent by Mitt Romney in 2011, according to statements they have released during their presidential campaigns.
The documents also show that Trump was continuing to benefit in 2005 from the $916million loss he reported in 1995, a trick that was closed by Congress in 1996.
Trump gave an interview last month in which he repeated his stance that ‘nobody cares about my tax return except for the reporters.’
‘At some point I’ll release them, ‘ Trump told The Economist .
‘Maybe I’ll release them after I’m finished because I’m very proud of them actually, ‘ he said.
‘I did a good job.’
In April, Trump’s lawyers said that a review of his last 10 years of tax returns did not reflect ‘any income of any type from Russian sources, ‘ with some exceptions.
It was one in a series of attempts by the president to tamp down concerns about any Russian ties amid an ongoing investigation of his campaign’s associates.
The attorneys did not release copies of Trump’s tax returns, so media outlets could not independently verify their conclusions.
Their review also notably takes into account Trump’s returns from only the past 10 years, leaving questions about whether there were financial dealings with Russia in earlier years.
In a letter released to the AP, the attorneys said there was no equity investment by Russians in entities controlled by Trump or debt owed by Trump to Russian lenders.
But it reflected some exceptions, including income from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that was held in Moscow and a property sold to a Russian billionaire in 2008 for $95 million.
