President Trump’s taxes have remained a hot topic for years now and he has continued to neglect to release his tax returns. A recent article in the New York Times has shown that Trump had over $270 million in debt forgiven from a Chicago, IL hotel project. Trump has defended his actions tweeting, “I was able to make an appropriately great deal with the numerous lenders on a large and very beautiful tower. Doesn’t that make me a smart guy rather than a bad guy?” This commentary has sparked further debate around his taxes and whether what he has done, regarding his taxes, is ethical. 

In 2016 Trump widely proclaimed that he was a self made business man and gained lots of support from voters seeking a President who was not a career politician, but rather, a businessman. Trump is now struggling to keep his tax information concealed, as the New York Times is slowly uncovering more than 20 years of Trump’s tax returns that he fought so hard to hide. It became more clear that his rise to riches was through tax avoidance, taking huge tax write-offs, and getting money from his father.

The result of these huge write-offs and generous loan forgiveness results in a bigger gap between the lower and upper class and proves that the burden of taxes falls more heavily on the middle class. 

In 2016, a New York Times article reported, “Newly obtained documents show that in the early 1990s, as he scrambled to stave off financial ruin, Mr. Trump avoided reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income by using a tax avoidance maneuver so legally dubious his own lawyers advised him that the Internal Revenue Service would most likely declare it improper if he were audited.” Trump was well aware of the sneaky maneuver he was taking. When pressed about the tax maneuver that year, while running against the Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton, Trump asked Hilary why she didn’t try to change those laws so he couldn’t use them when referring to tax loopholes available to billionaires.

It is a long standing tradition for Presidential candidates to release their tax returns. Trump’s competitor for Presidency, Joe Biden, has released over 20 years of his tax returns. This is something Trump has neglected to do year after year, and the American public is wondering why. At the most recent and final Presidential debate of the 2020 election, Biden told Trump to release his tax returns if he has nothing to hide. Trump responded by vaguely claiming that he has been trying to release them for years. He didn’t say when he would eventually publish them. 

In 2016 and 2017, Trump paid only $750 dollars in taxes, which is far less than what the average American family can expect to pay. Trump was able to get away with paying so little through these loopholes and essentially utilizes the aid his companies receive from the government. The New York Times explained Trump’s actions by stating, “Mr. Trump had $22.7 million in General Business Credit, much of it carried forward from prior years, that he could apply. The credit is a smorgasbord of tax incentives and givebacks to business owners, and in Mr. Trump’s case, they ranged from credits of $322,926 for Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on employee tips.”

It is important for U.S. citizens to understand how Trump is manipulating the system for his personal financial gain and for the profit of his companies, before voting in our rapidly approaching election. Trump has continued to use his role as a politician and a business owner to benefit himself financially, and Biden is urging citizens to question whether we want someone so untrustworthy and manipulative in charge of our country.