Business

Biden presses Trump to release tax returns after report on China bank account

by Naomi Jagoda - 10/22/20 10:44 PM ET

Former Vice President Joe Biden again pressed President Trump to release his tax returns during Thursday’s presidential debate, after The New York Times reported this week that the president maintains a Chinese bank account.

“What are you hiding? Why are you unwilling?” Biden asked the president.

The Times reported that Trump has a bank account in China and that the president’s business entity that controls that account paid nearly $200,000 in taxes in the country from 2013 to 2015.

“Release your tax return or stop talking about corruption,” Biden said.

Biden has released many years of his tax returns. He released his 2019 returns last month just before the first debate.

Trump said he doesn’t make money from China. He said he thought about doing a business deal in China but decided against it, and that the bank account was opened in 2013 and closed in 2015. A lawyer for the Trump Organization told the Times that the bank account is still open but that the company’s office in China has been inactive since 2015.

Trump argued that Biden has made money from foreign countries, but Biden said he has never taken money from a foreign source. The Times reported that Biden’s tax returns don’t show any income or business dealings in China.

The president said he would release his tax returns after he is done being audited, a comment the president has also made repeatedly in the past. The IRS has said that audits don’t prevent people from disclosing their own tax information.

Trump said that the IRS treats him “very badly.” He said he had a deal with the IRS to resolve his audit until he started running for president.

The Times reported last month that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in each of 2016 and 2017. Trump also said that he’s “prepaid” tens of millions of dollars and suggested that the $750 was a “filing fee.”

According to the Times, Trump’s tax returns included the $750 amount on a line for the president’s total taxes before self-employment taxes.

Kyle Pomerleau, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said on Twitter that paying estimated taxes during the year wouldn’t reduce the amount on that line of the return.

Tags China Donald Trump Joe Biden taxes