“Late
[yesterday] afternoon, the New York Times published the story we have been
waiting for since 2016: the story of Donald Trump’s taxes. There was never any
doubt that whatever was in those taxes was bad or he never would have worked so
hard to hide them. But the picture the New York Times story revealed was worse than
expected.
“The New York Times obtained more than two decades of
Donald Trump’s tax information, including that of his companies, through his
first two years in the White House. The picture they paint is of a man more
than [$400] million in debt; whose businesses are constantly losing money; who
deducts personal expenses including houses, airplanes, and $70,000 in
hairstyling; who is fighting with the IRS over the repayment of a $72.9 million
tax refund which, if it has to be repaid, will run to $100 million; and who in
his first year in office paid the most income tax he had paid in a decade:
$750.
“That’s not a typo.
“In 11 of the 18 years the reporters examined, Trump
paid no taxes at all. He has, however, paid taxes elsewhere. In 2017, Trump
paid $750 to the U.S., but paid $15,598 in Panama, $145,400 in India, and
$156,824 in the Philippines (rather undercutting the idea that American tax
laws are too harsh on the very wealthy).
“The information illuminates a number of the shadowy
puzzles of the Trump presidency. It shows that he was deeply in debt in 2015,
and was, as his former fixer Michael Cohen said, eager to rebuild his brand by
running for the highest office in the land. He had a bad habit of running
through cash and accumulating huge debt, a pattern that showed up first when he
ran through the money his father gave him, and then when the brief popularity
of The Apprentice put $427.4 million into his pocket. He threw the money from
The Apprentice into failing golf courses.
“The presidency has injected cash into Trump’s
businesses, as lobbyists and foreign governments invest in them, but he is
still losing money. The Times notes that ‘within the next four years, more than
[$400] million in loans—obligations for which he is personally responsible—will
come due.’
“This, of course, means that Trump is a huge
national security risk. He owes money—to whom we don’t know—and he does not
have it to pay his debts. It is no wonder that a bipartisan group of nearly 500
national security officials, past and present, last week endorsed Biden for
president. According to Defense News, the list included ‘five former
secretaries of the Navy, two former Army secretaries, four former Air Force
secretaries, two retired governors, and 106 ambassadors.’ Retired General Paul
Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first
two and a half years of Trump’s term, signed the letter.
“The tax returns also suggest that Trump’s
desperation to stay in office is sparked by the 1973 Department of Justice’s
Office of Legal Counsel memo saying a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Former inspector general of the Department of Justice Michael Bromwich tweeted ‘Trump
knew something we didn't when he started balking at the peaceful transfer of
power. If he loses the election, he faces federal and state prosecution for
bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, as does his entire family.
No OLC memo will spare him.’
“Among other things, the information revealed that
Trump wrote off about $26 million in ‘consulting fees’ between 2010 and 2018.
This reduced his taxable income, but it appears it might have simply been a way
to give money to his children without paying taxes on it: his daughter Ivanka
appears to have received $747,622 from the Trump Organization in consulting
fees, despite being an employee there.
“Remember, this is the information Trump chose to
tell the IRS. It seems worth wondering what he did not tell them. The Times says
it will not release the actual documents in order to protect its source(s). It
also says it will continue to drop more news from this trove over the coming
weeks.
“A
piece from Michael Kranish at the Washington Post today reinforced
the New
York Times story. Apparently, when he was on the verge of
personal bankruptcy in the 1990s, Trump tried to trick his 85-year-old father,
who was sliding into dementia, into signing a codicil to his will that would
cheat Trump’s siblings out of their inheritance and give Trump control of his
father’s entire estate. Trump’s mother stopped her husband from signing it.
“Trump had a press conference scheduled for shortly
after the New
York Times story broke. When asked about it, Trump claimed the
story was ‘totally fake news,’ although a lawyer for the Trump Organization
could only try to refute the story with misleading information. After the
conference, CNN’s Ana Cabrera pointed out that Trump could stop the New York
Times story if it were wrong by ‘releasing his tax returns, by
making them public.’…” (Heather Cox Richardson).
Some key takeaways from the Times’ reporting from AP News:
TRUMP
PAID JUST $750 IN TAXES IN BOTH 2016 and 2017.
The
newspaper said Trump initially paid $95 million in taxes over the 18 years it
studied. But he managed to recover most of that money by claiming — and
receiving — a stunning $72.9 million federal tax refund. According to the
Times, Trump also pocketed $21.2 million in state and local refunds, which are
typically based on federal filings.
Trump’s outsize refund became the subject of a
now-long-standing Internal Revenue Service audit of his finances. The audit was
widely known. Trump has claimed it was the very reason why he cannot release
his returns. But the Times report is the first to identify the issue that was
mainly in dispute.
As
a result of the refund, Trump paid an average $1.4 million in federal taxes
from 2000 to 2017, the Times reported. By contrast, the average U.S. taxpayer
in the top .001% of earners paid about $25 million annually over the same
time frame.
TRUMP
HAS FINANCED AN EXTRAVAGANT LIFESTYLE WITH THE USE OF BUSINESS EXPENSES.
From
his homes, his aircraft — and $70,000 on hair styling during his television
show “The Apprentice” — Trump has capitalized on cost incurred from his
businesses to finance a luxurious lifestyle.
The
Times noted that Trump’s homes, planes and golf courses are part of the Trump
family business and, as such, Trump classified them as business expenses as
well. Because companies can write off business expenses as deductions, all such
expenses have helped reduce Trump’s tax liability.
MANY
OF HIS BEST-KNOWN BUSINESSES ARE MONEY-LOSERS
The
president has frequently pointed to his far-flung hotels, golf courses and
resorts as evidence of his success as a developer and businessman. Yet these
properties have been draining money.
The
Times reported that Trump has claimed $315 million in losses since 2000 on his
golf courses, including the Trump National Doral near Miami, which Trump has
portrayed as a crown jewel in his business empire. Likewise, his Trump
International Hotel in Washington has lost $55 million, the Times reported.
FOREIGN
VISITORS HAVE HELPED SUPPORT TRUMP’S PROPERTIES
Since
Trump began his presidential run, lobbyists, foreign governments and
politicians have lavished significant sums of money on his properties, a
spending spree that raised questions about its propriety and legality.
The
Times report illustrates just how much that spending has been: Since 2015, his
Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida has taken in $5 million more a year from a surge
in membership. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association spent at least
$397,602 in 2017 at Trump’s Washington hotel. Overseas projects have produced
millions more for Trump — $3 million from the Philippines, $2.3 million from
India and $1 million from Turkey.
TRUMP
WILL FACE FINANCIAL PRESSURE AS DEBTS COME DUE
Trump
seems sure to face heavy financial pressures from the enormous pile of debt he
has absorbed. The Times said the president appears to be responsible for $421
million in loans, most of which will come due within four years. On top of
that, a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower in New York will come due in 2022.
Some surprising things we’ve learned about the US president’s finances (from Martin Belam, The Guardian):
ReplyDeleteMon 28 Sep 2020 06.44 EDT Last modified on Mon 28 Sep 2020 07.57 EDT
The shocking claim that Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes has dominated headlines after a New York Times report into his financial affairs, but it is far from the only surprising sum exposed by the documents. Here are some of the key figures:
$750
Federal tax Trump paid in 2016, when he won the presidency.
$750
Federal tax Trump paid the following year.
Zero
Federal tax paid by Trump in 10 of the previous 15 years, including 2014 and 2015.
$100,000 a year
By comparison, the kind of figure regularly paid in federal taxes by Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W Bush.
$70,000
Paid to style Trump’s hair for television, claimed as expenses.
$95,464
The total sum nine of Trump’s companies have paid as expenses to style Ivanka Trump’s hair.
$210,000
The amount written off as expenses to hire a photographer taking photographs at the Mar-a-Lago club.
$26m
“Consulting fees” charged as a business expense between 2010 and 2018, at least some of which appears to have been directed to a company co-owned by Ivanka Trump.
$434m
What Trump declared his earnings to be in the 2018 presidential public annual financial disclosure.
$47.4m in losses
What he had declared to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax purposes over the same period.
$421m
Outstanding loans that Trump owes, most of which becomes due within the next four years.
$73m
Revenue generated from outside the US, presenting a potential conflict of interest with US foreign policy.
$13m
Earned in one licensing deal for Trump Towers in Istanbul, including $1m since he became president.
$72.9m
The tax refund Trump claimed and was awarded, which is now the subject of a decade-long audit battle with the IRS. It covered all the federal tax he had paid between 2005 and 2008.
$1.4m
The annual average amount of federal tax paid by Trump between 2000 and 2017. It compares with the $25m in federal income taxes the average American with similar declared earnings could expect to pay.
$100m
The amount Trump could now have to pay back to the IRS, including penalties, if it finds against him in the audit.
$315m
The sum reported “lost” by Trump’s golf courses since 2000.
‘Tens of millions of dollars’
What Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, claims the president has paid in personal taxes since 2015.
More than 500
The number of individual companies, many bearing the Trump name, that make up the nebulous corporate network generally referred to as the Trump Organization...
From Seth Hanlon (@SethHanlon):
ReplyDelete“In 2017, a single worker without children who made $18,000 would have paid $760 in federal income tax.
Donald Trump paid $750.”
Glen, perchance if not aware of “The Proof of” trilogy Conspiracy, Collusion, and Corruption written by Seth Abramson it is very much worth the read Frightening in its expose of the worst man of our time and how he got there. https://www.sethabramson.net/
ReplyDelete