• President Donald Trump’s tax information covering the years 1985 to 1994 show a business empire nearly in ruin, according to financial information obtained by The New York Times.
• Trump’s negative adjusted gross income allowed him not to pay any income tax for eight of those years, according to the records.
• The filings show that in 1985, Trump lost $US46.1 million from his casinos, hotels, and apartments. These businesses kept losing money annually for a total loss of $US1.17 billion over 10 years, according to The New York Times.
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President Donald Trump’s tax information covering the years 1985 to 1994 show a business empire nearly in ruin, so much so that his negative adjusted gross income allowed him not to pay any income tax for eight of those years, according to The New York Times.

The tax information, first reported by The Times on Tuesday, revealed that Trump’s businesses were not as successful as the future president made them out to be:

• In 1985, the filings show Trump lost $US46.1 million from his casinos, hotels, and apartments. These businesses kept losing money annually for a total loss of $US1.17 billion over 10 years, The New York Times reported.
• In 1986, his businesses had a loss of $US68.7 million, according to The Times.
• In 1987, Trump purchased a $US29 million yacht and a $US407 million hotel despite the stock market taking a plunge. He reported his businesses lost $US42.2 million in 1987 and $US30.4 million in 1988.
• Trump’s business losses between 1990 and 1991 totaled more than $US500 million.
• Citing Trump’s tax filings and publicly available data from the IRS, The Times reported Trump “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer” when compared with other wealthy individuals.
• The losses meant that Trump avoided paying income tax for eight of the 10 years documented in the tax information cited by The Times.
• Additionally, Trump’s income shifted annually. In 1988, he earned a more than $US67 million salary, and he received a “mysterious” $US52.9 million in interest income in 1989.
  • Trump’s $US67 million salary was 90% of his total regular wage during the 10-year period.
  • Trump’s interest income shifted dramatically. In 1990, he reported $US18.7 million, and in 1992, he reported $US3.6 million.
• Between 1986 and 1988, Trump suggested he would buy out numerous companies. The suggestions earned him millions of dollars, but the gains were short-lived after investors stopped taking him seriously, The Times reported.
• In 1989, Trump’s businesses reported a loss of nearly $US182 million, according to The Times.
• The Times said Trump borrowed $US10 million for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. But this investment appears to have been fruitful – financial disclosures from 2017 claimed the estate is worth over $US50 million, according to The Sun-Sentinel.

Trump portrayed himself as a wealthy business mogul before his presidential campaign and has continued to do so throughout his presidency.

“There is no one my age who has accomplished more,” Trump told Newsweek in 1987.

Trump’s attorney Charles Harder said the tax information The Times cited for its report is “demonstrably false” and “highly inaccurate.”

“IRS transcripts, particularly before the days of electronic filing, are notoriously inaccurate,” Harder said, without offering any evidence to support that assertion.

Read more: Democratic lawmaker asks IRS for 6 years of Trump’s tax returns

The Times’ reporting does not answer lingering questions about Trump’s more recent tax returns, which have been a contentious topic during his presidency. Democrats have questioned Trump’s financial dealings and have asked for six years of his tax returns.

Democratic Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the Ways and Means Committee chairman, previously demanded Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin direct the IRS to release the returns for a select group of lawmakers.

Mnuchin rebuffed the request, citing a lack of a “legitimate legislative purpose.”

Trump defied decades of precedent as a presidential candidate by refusing to release the tax documents and has continued to keep them from the public as president. Trump said he could not release his returns while he is under audit by the IRS.

It is unclear if Trump is being audited by the IRS. There is no law that prohibits a tax filer from releasing his tax returns during an audit.

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