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What President Trump's Tax Returns Reveal About The Tax Code : 1A "A lot of the complication [in the tax code] comes from carve-outs and special rates for particular types of activity ... particularly for wealth," says economist Chye-Ching Huang.

Researcher Veronique de Rugy adds, "Every exemption in the tax code serves someone and some goal and if we use the tax code to achieve social goals, we make it more complex."

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What President Trump's Tax Returns Reveal About The Tax Code

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What President Trump's Tax Returns Reveal About The Tax Code

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What President Trump's Tax Returns Reveal About The Tax Code

What President Trump's Tax Returns Reveal About The Tax Code

Listen · 34:34
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/918696702/918806652" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
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President Donald Trump's tax records were obtained by The New York Times, which recently published an investigation into the documents. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump's tax records were obtained by The New York Times, which recently published an investigation into the documents.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

This week, a report from The New York Times revealed that Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. He paid nothing at all for 10 of the last 15 years. The president has denied any wrongdoing. In the presidential debate, he responded to a question about the report by saying "I paid millions in taxes, millions in income tax."

Whether that's legal or not, a lot of people who aren't billionaires pay more than $750 for their federal income tax. And that can seem unfair.

Now, the president isn't the only person who does this. Plenty of wealthy people and big corporations use both legal and illegal methods to avoid paying taxes.

But how do Americans feel about paying taxes and the people who avoid paying them? And why is the tax system so complicated that it takes a group of experts to decode it with us?

We spoke with Vanessa Williamson, Paul Kiel, Veronique de Rugy, and Chye-Ching Huang to shed light on these questions.

We also talked about the presidential debate with voters. Find that conversation here.

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