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

nytimes.com

141–150 of 280 posts

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

#141

OT (apologies): I submitted a link about Trump's nomination for Supreme court; it was immediately killed as political. I checked to see if there was a thread about RBG before submitting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24602735 Now there is a story about Trump's taxes that is ok to discuss. Genuine question: how is it determined what is ok to discuss on HN and what is political?

Based on people flagging submissions. I flagged this for the reasons you cite. Surprised it’s lasted so long.

What "reasons" did the parent cite, and why exactly did you flag this? There is no rule against political content on HN.

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

#142

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…

I'm not sure why you are being downvoted. This is a very valid point. This is not just an ordinary man, this is the head of the executive branch of the United States of America.

Every single comment that highlights something negative about trump gets downvoted, like clockwork. It's either an automated bot or an army of very bored trump supporters.

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

#143
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is unclear at the moment and the NYT is not revealing it's source according to this[1]. It says they are declining to provide the tax filings to protect their sources at the bottom. [1]: https://apnews.com/article/archive-personal-taxes-donald-tru...

I saw that part too which was concerning to me. I hope it comes to light and that it is in a legal manner. I am concerned about precedent setting.

There’s already precedent, mentioned in the article. Nixon’s returns.

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

#144
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the issues is that he has simultaneously told the opposite story to his lenders, making himself look wealthier than he is in order to score loans. This, is fraud.

When I bought my house (borrowing roughly 200K) the bank wanted several years of tax returns and basically put my finances under a microscope. Pretty much everything except the anal probe. So, you think a bank that's going to lend Trump 100 Million isn't going to examine his finances in greater detail?

For celebrities, and especially those with lots of properties in their name, it makes sense for a bank to give a huge loan and be assured that at the worst, properties will be attached.

Loans for a house are completely different from, say, loans for a commercial high rise, smack in the middle of New York.

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

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on people flagging submissions. I flagged this for the reasons you cite. Surprised it’s lasted so long.

What "reasons" did the parent cite, and why exactly did you flag this? There is no rule against political content on HN.

Specifically you’re supposed to flag anything not within the guidelines[1]:

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#147
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the Alternative Minimum Tax? You know, that tax law that pops up frequently for high earners in the tech field when they have more deductions than seems fair? Why isn't Trump subject to the same minimum taxation that I would be?

The AMT is for ... uh ... "wagecucks" is the 4chan terminology. If you are actually rich you never have income as such.

I think of Mitt Romney who last reportedly has $87 million in his IRA. You can't contribute more than $30k/yr to an IRA.

How do you get an IRA with close to 8 figures in it?

Same trick of filling your bosses locked office with balloons. Slip the balloons (worthless stocks) under the door and then blow them up from the outside.

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

#148
post #122
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about a public servant. It just highlights a cutthroat selfishness in past actions and current politics. >No person has an obligation, legal or moral, to pay a cent more in taxes than what they owe under the tax code. But let me ask you something. Do you believe there is zero moral obligation or simply that the current tax code is at the absolute pinnacle of moral balance?

Does that mean that every government employee should not be allowed to avoid taxes?

I’m of the opinion that no one should avoid taxes, so if you’re asking just about government employees, then the answer is still yes, they shouldn’t be allowed to.

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

#149
post #110

I want to see the actual documents before I believe this. I’m fine with the NYT refusing to make their source but I can’t think of any reason to keep the documents secret.

There are likely certain security features in the documents themselves that would identify whoever leaked them.

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

#150
post #39
post #2

Did anyone really expect anything else? People who actually make a lot of money don't go around shouting "I make a lot of money".

Trump has literally spent his adult life shouting "I make a lot of money" on TV.

Therefore he doesn't actually make a lot of money.
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