Hugh Hewitt dismisses report of Trump paying $750 in taxes: “It's what any wealthy person's tax history is, if you can believe it”

Hewitt: “Which is good years and bad years, years of immense taxes and years of almost no taxes at all because you carry over losses.”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Update (9/28/20): This post has been updated to highlight a further inaccuracy in Hewitt’s claims about Trump’s tax payments.

Hugh Hewitt discusses New York Times report on Donald Trump’s tax returns — Part 1

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From the September 28, 2020, edition of Salem Radio Network’s The Hugh Hewitt Show

HUGH HEWITT (HOST): When I come back, I'm going to talk about the story in The New York Times about the president's taxes. It's not much of a story. The liberal left is gnawing at its leg about it. The president paid, apparently, $750 in one year, or two years. He also paid $70 million in taxes in 2005 to 2007.

I had an accountant look at it last night. It's what any wealthy person's tax history is, if you can believe it — which is good years and bad years, years of immense taxes and years of almost no taxes at all because you carry over losses.

When Hewitt returned from the commercial break, he continued:

Hugh Hewitt discusses New York Times report on Donald Trump’s tax returns — Part 2

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From the September 28, 2020, edition of Salem Radio Network’s The Hugh Hewitt Show

HUGH HEWITT (HOST): Welcome back, America, it's Hugh Hewitt. The New York Times dropped a big story on President Trump's taxes. Allegedly, somebody leaked tax returns of the president. I don't know if it's true or not. Michael Shear (sic) is a very good reporter. I would not have buried the way his editor did, the fact that the president paid $70 million in taxes in 2005, ‘06 and ‘07 — I think that's a total, not an annual, but I can't really tell.

Hank Adler, with whom I authored a book about The Fair Tax Fantasy many years ago, sent me a note last night. “I read the whole thing. Couple of interesting points, but surrounded by so much innuendo. When you fight your way through the actual tax return info offered, there exist few surprises, business income offsetting business losses. As to his net worth, who knows? His general focus on leisure has to have been a disaster this year.”

I really don't know, and I don't that you're — I just don't think it's what the left thinks it is. When you pay $70 million in taxes in 2005, ‘06 and ‘07, and then $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017 — I don't think anyone votes on that, I just don't. And they might, I could be wrong, I just think they think he's a rich guy, and some years he wins, and some years he offsets losses and doesn't pay taxes in the years — those are bad years — and then good years he pays a lot of taxes.

Note: The New York Times article in question was written by Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire. Shear wrote about President Trump's response.

Furthermore, the Times reported that Trump had even clawed back the roughly $70 million in income tax payments from the mid-2000s, which Hewitt cited above:

In fact, confidential records show that starting in 2010 he claimed, and received, an income tax refund totaling $72.9 million — all the federal income tax he had paid for 2005 through 2008, plus interest.

The legitimacy of that refund is at the center of the audit battle that he has long been waging, out of public view, with the I.R.S.

…

If the auditors ultimately disallow Mr. Trump’s $72.9 million federal refund, he will be forced to return that money with interest, and possibly penalties, a total that could exceed $100 million. He could also be ordered to return the state and local refunds based on the same claims.