"The story is a total fake,"Trump said,while refusing to give specifics on how much tax he has paid.

Later,on Twitter,among a barrage of retweets of accusations of wrong doing aimed at Democrats was a simple two-word entry from the President:"FAKE NEWS!".

Since the 2016 campaign Trump has repeatedly justified not releasing his tax returns by claiming he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),even though this does not preclude him from making his tax information public.

TheTimes said it had obtained tax return data covering more than two decades for Trump and companies within his business organisation. It did not have information about his personal returns from 2018 or 2019.

The newspaper said it had decided not to publish the tax returns in full in order to protect the confidentiality of its reporters'sources.

"We are publishing this report because we believe citizens should understand as much as possible about their leaders and representatives — their priorities,their experiences and also their finances,"Dean Baquet,theTimes'executive editor,wrote in a note to readers.

A lawyer for the Trump Organisation,Alan Garten,told theTimes that"most,if not all,of the facts appear to be inaccurate".

He said in a statement to theTimes that the President"has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government,including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015".

TheTimes also reported Trump was currently embroiled in a decade-long IRS audit over a $US73 million tax refund he claimed after declaring large losses. If the IRS rules against him in that audit,he could have to pay more than $US100 million,according to the newspaper.