President Trump Says He Prepaid His Taxes. So Do Millions of Americans by His Definition
Last week, during the final presidential debate with Joe Biden, President Trump responded to claims that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes for both 2016 and 2017, as per data dug up by The New York Times. Now to be clear, President Trump has yet to release his official tax returns -- something he says he can't do given that they're in the process of being audited -- so it's difficult to know whether those $750 estimates are accurate or not. But Trump insists that he did, in fact, pay much more than $750 a year. In fact, he stated at the debate that he actually prepaid tens of millions of dollars in taxes. But what exactly does that mean?
Technically, there's really no such thing as prepaying taxes. What the president is likely referring to, however, is the practice of paying quarterly estimated taxes -- something anyone with self-employment income or large amounts of income outside of a paycheck is obligated to do.
In fact, more than 9.6 million taxpayers made estimated quarterly payments during the 2018 tax year, reports the IRS. And staying current on those taxes is a good way to avoid costly penalties.
Source Fool.com
