Authorities are investigating claims that Donald Trump and his siblings helped their parents dodge millions in taxes.

It comes after The New York Times said the US president had been given the equivalent of $413m (£318m) in today's money from his late father's property empire.

It said the vast sums came to Mr Trump because he and his siblings devised ways to limit taxes on the gifts, including "outright fraud" and masking the payments using a "sham corporation".

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the story was "misleading" and that "many decades ago the IRS reviewed and signed off on these transactions".

Image: Mr Trump in 1989 with first wife Ivana, mother Mary, and father Fred

One of Mr Trump's lawyers, Charles Harder, said the report was "100% false".


The New York Times said it had examined tens of thousands of pages of tax returns and confidential records related to the business interests and trusts of Mr Trump's father, Fred.

It also claimed the president had helped reduce his parents' tax bill by undervaluing their property empire by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr Trump's parents died in 1999 and 2000, with the Times saying they transferred a total of more than $1bn (£770m) to their five children over the years.

It should have meant a tax bill of at least $550m (£423m) but the Trumps paid just over $52m (£40m), according to the Times' analysis of tax records.

I’ve directed NYC’s Department of Finance to immediately investigate tax and housing violations and to work with NY State to find out if appropriate taxes were paid. https://t.co/AVCJ0VWH3T — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) October 3, 2018

The president has famously portrayed himself as a self-made billionaire who flourished after getting a "very small" $1m (£770,000) loan from his New York property developer father.

But the NYT investigation says Mr Trump was getting $200,000 a year (£153,770) in today's money from his parents' business when he was three, was a millionaire at eight, and was still getting $5m (£3.8m) a year in his 40s and 50s.

New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, tweeted on Tuesday: "I've directed NYC's department of finance to immediately investigate tax and housing violations and to work with NY State to find out if appropriate taxes were paid."

James Gazzale, a spokesman for New York's tax authority, added: "The tax department is reviewing the allegations in the NYT article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation."