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Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

nytimes.com

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Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#71

Post by mhh__ »

malwarebytess wrote: post #4

Outside of the near meaningless confirmation of Trump's status as a "fake" billionaire and how that may affect his ego, there's is an alarming piece of information here. The man owes hundreds of millions of dollars in personal loans that he may not be able to repay. They will come due during his second term. Given his lack of ethics it's worrying to me that a president could have that kind of leverage against him. Da…

This was mentioned quite a lot in 2015, in my memory at least - especially in light of his business dealings in Russia but ultimately it's just conjecture. If it turned out to be true there's probably enough information in public to piece together a chronology but not without hindsight.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helpe...

To quote the man himself:

Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#72

Post by throwawaysea »

secondcoming wrote: post #46
pravda wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It feels like that part of the story is the bigger deal. You think that is the bigger deal? I suppose it is a variant of doxing, but it doesn't look like the NYT is going to post the actual returns, just their interpretation.

Didn't they also post their interpretation of American history recently?

Yes. With the 1619 project not only did the times publish work by a writer with a history of racism (https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/25/in-racist-screed-nyts-1...), but they also ignored their own fact checkers (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-proje...).

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#73

Post by nrmitchi »

sigzero wrote: post #10

There is ZERO wrong with income tax "avoidance". I don't care who you are.

I'm going to focus on just one example from this report.

Seven Springs is a very large properly that he purchased, and claims and reports as an investment property. This allows deductions of all loan interest, upkeep/maintenance, and operating expenses.

Based on family statements in the past, the property is used primarily as a personal residence.

Reporting a personal property as an investment property in order to deduct expenses is not "tax avoidance", it is tax fraud.

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#74

Post by wwright »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #63
wwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, which IMO is a shitty thing to do at this scale

To play devil's advocate, at what scale should I instruct my CPA not to take every deduction I'm entitled to?

In my opinion: when you could be paying tens of thousands or more to support others, instead you are paying $0, and you know other people who barely make half the median household income are paying 20–30% of their total income.

Do these rules exist for other people? Yes! Is he possibly only taking advantage of what others allow him to do? Sure! Is it still selfish and trivially anti-social? Yes.

If they made it legal for billionaires to steal cars off the street, it would still be shitty for them to steal cars.

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#75

Post by mandevil »

kache_ wrote: post #17

Reminder; tax avoidance != tax fraud.

If you read the article, you'd see that there is a critical thing where he got a 70 million dollar refund, in a manner which probably violated IRS Guidelines. This has been debated since 2011, and has still not reached a decision. If the IRS (and Congress, since they need to sign off on all refunds for individuals > 2 million) declare that he was not entitled to that refund (which from the article seems like the way that it ought to go) he will owe back that 70 million with interest, putting it close to 100 million today.

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#77

Post by canjobear »

tsherr wrote: post #44
maskedoffender wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's been losing money in office and has been donating his paycheck every quarter. He's not being president for the money.

Lol. He's been manipulating the stock market for gain since he took power. Buy puts. Threaten a trade war on Twitter. Profit. Buy calls. Cancel the trade war on Twitter. Profit.

Do you have evidence that he did this?

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#78

Post by _jahh »

microcolonel wrote: post #28
kache_ wrote: post #17

Reminder; tax avoidance != tax fraud.

I honestly don't understand why “tax avoidance” is meant to sound so naughty. Almost everyone avoids taxes, almost every time they might be subject to a tax; some people are just better at it. When you fail to collect taxes from somebody who is following the law, that is a matter for your tax code, not a moral failing of the filer.

no the tax system is set up to enable more avoidance the greater the sum.

Re: Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance

#79

Post by CamperBob2 »

pravda wrote: post #38
boringg wrote: post #14

I’m more concerned about how this information was sourced. Did it get leaked from the IRS or an accountant? It feels like that part of the story is the bigger deal. I love the NYT but this feels kind of like doxing and makes me very uncomfortable.

>It feels like that part of the story is the bigger deal. You think that is the bigger deal? I suppose it is a variant of doxing, but it doesn't look like the NYT is going to post the actual returns, just their interpretation.

Yes, it's a big deal, because one of Trump's favorite tactics is to "leak" something through "anonymous sources" that later falls apart in a spectacularly-public way, leaving egg on the journalists' faces and Trump looking like the legitimate victim of a smear campaign.

The time for "anonymous sources" is over. No more. Back up the information, or don't publish.

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