Americans Are Furious After Learning They Paid More In Taxes Than President Trump

On Sunday, The New York Times revealed that President Donald Trump only paid $750 in taxes the year he was elected into the White House. The following year, in 2017, he paid $750 again which is a shockingly low amount given the fact that the POTUS is worth approximately $2.5 billion per Forbes. "His portfolio, which includes commercial buildings, golf properties, and branding businesses, is worth an estimated $3.66 billion before debt. The president has a fair amount of leverage—adding up to a roughly $1.13 billion—but not enough to drag his net worth below a billion dollars," reads a report by Forbes. The report by the New York Times also explains the elaborate process used by some of his companies which made losses to wipe out tax liabilities elsewhere.

To understand this better here's a comparison: So, the $750 Trump paid in federal taxes is equivalent to the amount a single adult, without any children, earning $17,900 in 2017 had to pay. As for single parents with two kids, they would have to earn $44,706 or more in 2017 to pay $750 or more in federal income taxes in 2017, i.e. after they file as a head of household. According to an article by Vox, a married couple with two kids would pay the same amount in federal taxes in 2017 if they earned $53,450 or more. 

According to the Census Bureau, the median income (which is the level at which half of all households earned less and half earned more, per LA Times) brought in by American households was $63,761 in 2017. The tax levied on these families was about $8,600 for couples who filed jointly and $11,670 for singles, which seems quite unfair because they had to pay over ten times the amount Trump paid in federal taxes and he is a "multibillionaire." The low taxes payments made by Trump was not only evidence of his questionable business dealing but it also lay bare a faulty system that allows billionaires to get away with paying huge chunks of their fortune. 

Ernie Tedeschi, an economist who served in the Treasury Department when Obama was President revealed that half of all American families paid far more than Trump in federal income taxes, according to The Washington Post. "The outrage is that what he paid in federal income tax is right in the middle of American families and is clearly living a lifestyle that is not in the middle of American families. It’s at the very upper echelon," said Tedeschi. "And that strikes people as unfair." Even though it seems unfair, it is not illegal because what Trump has been doing is "tax avoidance" which is not the same as "tax evasion." Trump writes off much of his lavish lifestyles as "business" and pays questionable amounts to his children as alleged "consulting" fees, then claims it as a business expense thus reducing his liability. 

Trump said that his "tax avoidance" is actually an excellent indicator of his intelligence. During a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, he noted, "That makes me smart" when she said, "He's paid zero. That means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools, and health. And I think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are because it must be something really important, even terrible that he's trying to hide." Democratic nominee Joe Biden also responded to this revelation by providing a calculator that allows residents to compare what they have been paying in taxes to Trump. 

Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed at the bigger issue of inequity in the system that allows Trump to get away with tax while low wage workers carry the burden.

Following AOC's tweet, many began sharing the amount they paid against the amount earned. The one common thing in all the posts was the fact that they were all furious at the President.