NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times.
Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid $750 in taxes to the federal government the year he was elected, 2016, and $750 again his first year in office.
The disclosure, which the Times said comes from tax return data it obtained extending over two decades, comes at a pivotal moment ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday, and weeks before a divisive election.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, told the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate.”
Garten said in a statement to the news organization that the president "has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015.”
Asked about the report at the White House shortly after the story was published, Trump told reporters: “It’s fake news. It’s totally fake news. Made up, fake.”
"We went through the same stories—you could have asked me the same questions—four years ago I had to litigate this and talk about it. Totally fake news. No, 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. The IRS does not treat me well," Trump continued.
"They treat me very badly," he said. "You have people in the IRS—they treat me very, very badly. But they’re under audit. And when they’re not, I’d be proud to show it. But that’s just fake news."
The president also said he wasn't aware the story was being published: "No, I didn’t know anything about it."