Trump paid more in tax to foreign countries than to US

Donald Trump was reported to have paid more taxes outside the United States than he did at home in two decades prior to his election in 2016.

Documents obtained by the New York Times detailing his tax returns before becoming president, and published on Sunday, allege as little as two $750 federal income tax payments made by the US president in 2016 and 2017.

In comparison, the then-television personality and self-styled millionaire made payments to authorities in Panama at an amount of $15,598 (£12,127), some twenty-one-times bigger than his contributions in the United States.

He also paid $145,400 (£113,036) in taxes on his businesses in India, and $156,824 (£209,098) in the Philippines, whose authoritarian president Rodrigo Duterte was said to share positive relations with his US counterpart.

Those tax contributions to the Philippines, alone, were more than two-hundred-times greater than the payments made to the federal government in 2016 and 2017.

Whilst in the 15 years prior to his election victory four years ago, Mr Trump, paid no income tax whatsoever to the US government for 10 of those years, the NYT reported.  

The revelations show that, despite championing an “America first” agenda as president, Mr Trump contributed little to the country’s finances as he made - and lost - millions as a businessman.  

As host on “The Apprentice”, Mr Trump raised more than $400 million (£310 million) through his television career and personal branding, the NYT reported, before appearing to squander those incomes on resorts and hotels at home and overseas, some of which made multi-million dollar losses.

Meanwhile, between 2017 and 2019, the president's income from abroad was said to have totalled $73 million (£56.7 million), which included income streams from authoritarian or right-wing states such as the Philippines ($3 million) and India ($2.3 million).

Turkey - where Mr Trump reportedly made $1 million in his first two years as president - was said to represent the most prominent conflicts of interest between his office and businesses portfolio.

According to the NYT, that included Turkish Airlines’ use of the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia to host a golfing tournament - in an apparent bid to improve the country’s ties with the Trump administration at a low point.

Speaking at the White House on Sunday night, Mr Trump said the reports on his long-awaited tax returns were “totally fake”.