On Friday morning, the House Ways and Means Committee released six years' worth of Donald Trump's tax returns. The returns revealed that Trump paid $0 in federal income tax in 2020.
Many Americans were enraged to discover this, but what they may not know is that 60% of American households also paid $0 in federal income tax in 2020.
Unlike Donald and Melania Trump, American households who did not pay federal income tax did not have to because they earned less than the standard deduction. The standard deduction is $12,950 for single individuals and $25,900 for married couples who file jointly.
The people who didn't pay federal income tax did, however, still have to pay sales taxes, property taxes, as well as other types. Americans who did not owe federal income taxes would have also had money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security and Medicare.
Trump and his wife reported paying $0 in income taxes in 2020, and the Joint Committee on Taxation also raised flags on his carryover losses, deduction-related tax write-offs and loans to his children that were reported as gifts.
The committee also agreed that it was odd that although the IRS is supposed to conduct mandatory audits of all president's taxes, there was no audit conducted until Richard Neal, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested it in 2019.