Trump has open bank account in CHINA ‘that paid $189k in taxes to the communist country over three years’
DONALD Trump's tax returns have shown the president still maintains a bank account in China, it was revealed on Tuesday.
An account controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC paid $188,561 in taxes in China from 2013 to 2015, according to The New York Times.
The report comes after the newspaper revealed that Trump paid just $750 in taxes in the US during 2016 and 2017, as well as no federal income tax during 10 out of 15 years, beginning in 2000.
In addition to the China account, Trump reportedly also has bank accounts in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which are held by companies that operate Trump's golf courses there.
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told The Times that the company China had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” associated with efforts to do business there.
FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS
Garten added: “No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive.
“Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
Garten added that the company had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia.”
The foreign bank accounts are under corporate names and therefore do not appear on Trump's public financial disclosure forms, the Times reported.
TAX RETURNS
The documents obtained by The Times don't indicate how much money moved through the president's foreign accounts.
Taxpayers are only required to report a portion of their income from foreign countries, and the hotel management entity in China only reported several thousand dollars, according to The Times.
China has become a hot topic on the 2020 campaign trail, as the country has been tied to the president's trade war, as well as the origin of the coronavirus.
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Meanwhile, Trump himself has claim that during his time as Vice President, Joe Biden was a "puppet" of China.
The president has also made bold claims about Hunter Biden's business dealings in China while his father was the VP.
Biden's financial disclosures and tax returns show no business or income in China, according to The Times.