Trump May Owe NYC 'Tens Of Millions' In Unpaid Taxes, Mayor Says

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump's reported efforts to dodge taxes may mean he and his business owe New York City tens of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

City and state officials are reviewing allegations published in The New York Times last week that Trump used various tax schemes, some of which involved "outright fraud," to inflate the fortune he inherited from his family.

The Times investigation, based on interviews and thousands of pages of documents, found Trump helped to disguise financial gifts as business transactions and to greatly undervalue his parents' real-estate holdings on tax returns.

The Republican president's reported skulduggery may have cost the city tens of millions of dollars given the potential "ramifications" for property taxes, real estate transfer taxes and unincorporated business taxes, de Blasio said.

"This appears to be a very elaborate systematic effort to defraud the government and to defraud the people of New York City who didn’t get those tax dollars," the Democratic mayor said during his weekly interview on NY1's "Inside City Hall."

The Times' lengthy story detailing the dubious financial maneuvers from Trump's days as a New York-based real estate magnate drew almost immediate interest from state and city officials.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance — which is already reportedly investigating the president's charitable foundation — said it was reviewing the allegations just hours after the story was published last Tuesday. The next day, de Blasio made known that the city was also "looking to recoup" any money Trump may owe.

De Blasio did not offer many details Monday night about the city's investigation, and his press secretary did not respond to emailed quesitons about what it would entail. But the mayor pledged that the city would not "let this go."

"We’re going to put a lot of personnel on it," he said. "This will be a long investigation. But to think that someone who had all that wealth and power already went to so much trouble to defraud the people of New York City, that’s unacceptable."

De Blasio has been a vocal critic of Trump and a persistent proponent of taxing the rich. While he acknowledged that wealthy people generally don't "pay their fair share" in taxes, the mayor said Trump's conduct as reported by the Times appears to be "well into the evasion and fraud category."

"I think it’s going to be a big issue in the 2020 election," he said. "I think people in this city and this state, this country are now fed up."

In a statement to the Times, a lawyer for Trump, Charles J. Harder, denied all allegations of fraud and downplayed the president's role in the tax moves his family used.

"There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone," Harder told the Times. "The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate."

(Lead image: President Donald Trump appears at a ceremonial swearing-in for new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Oct. 8, 2018. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)