Accountant testifies that Trump claimed huge losses on his tax returns
The accountants found an alleged tax loss of $1.5 billion in the 2017 tax return, which was due to be released in August. However, by the time the tax return was released, Donald Trump was president-elect.
In his testimony, Mr. Trump said he had no recollection of the claim and that he would find out the tax return number and verify it with the IRS before presenting it to the public.
“Do you know who filed the tax return that appears to have caused that much tax loss?” Mr. Bair asked.
“I do not,” Mr. Trump said, declining to explain what he meant.
Democrats are pushing to subpoena Mr. Trump for the tax return and any documentation relating to his tax returns that he provided to Russian officials in the year leading up to the election.
“The tax loss on behalf of the Trump tax return is clearly a question for the IRS to answer under oath,” said the top House Democrat, Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass.
The New York Times is reporting that during the campaign season, Donald Trump claimed for the first time over the last six years that he incurred a massive tax loss, estimated at $1.5 billion. This is an extraordinary claim that comes only two years after his first major foray into campaign finance reporting, when he submitted an incomplete and heavily inaccurate filing that he then blamed on an accountant. Then, in a second filing, he alleged “unusual, but not unheard-of, accounting practices.”
In an appearance before House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and others on April 7, Mr. Trump was asked whether he was familiar with the tax returns he submitted in 2016. Mr. Trump said, “This is the first I’ve heard about the tax return, I never knew about it before today.”
At the time of his third filing with the IRS, Mr
