Trump well behind on his taxes, says New York Times

The New York Times is alleging that US President Donald Trump paid zero income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years.

Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, called the report “fake news”.

“Actually, I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time,” he told reporters after the story was published on Sunday.

The Times claims to have obtained tax records for Trump and his companies going back 20 years. It said the information in its report was “provided by sources with legal access to it”.

The records reveal “chronic losses and years of tax avoidance”, it says.

The newspaper also claims Trump only paid US$750 (RM3,000) in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, the years he won the election and entered the White House.

Trump denied the story and claimed that he pays “a lot” in federal income taxes. “And I pay a lot in state income taxes,” he said.

Trump insisted that he is willing to release his tax returns once he is no longer under audit by the Internal Revenue Service, which he said “treats me badly”.

A lawyer for the Trump Organisation told the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate”.

The report comes at a crucial moment, just days before Trump’s first presidential debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden and only weeks before the November election.