The BIG ONE: 20 years of Trump taxes obtained by NYTs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Trump supporter by a long shot. But as a CPA, I'd want to see the actual tax returns. $750 tells me nothing. He may have been taking deductions that are allowed according to the U.S. tax code. Show us the actual returns.

As a CPA, you’re probably aware of the potential legal pitfalls of claiming massive losses to avoid paying federal income taxes while inflating your revenues and assets on bank documents for loan purposes. Wouldn’t you tell your client that constitutes fraud?

No. Not at all. The accounting systems for tax and for financial reporting purposes are substantially different beasts.

This. The general public just doesn't understand enough about the different reporting systems.

You know, I know next to nothing about tax law, but I do know that someone who lives like Donald Trump should be paying a lot more than $750 in taxes, and that Trump's tax reform only exacerbated this problem.

Ignorant and proud of it!

You go girl/guy!

Name-calling... looks like I got a nerve. All the accountant-splaining in the world doesn't change the fact that Trump paid next to nothing in income taxes. Meanwhile, this is how his 2017 tax reform plan was described by the Center for Public Integrity:

"The 2017 law does modestly cut taxes for the lower and middle classes, but its main beneficiaries were the rich and corporations. And the law actually created more loopholes and tax breaks, experts say, favoring those who can afford pricey accounting help. Ed Kleinbard, former chief of Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which assesses tax legislation Congress proposes, called the law a “Christmas present to the donor class” and “an abomination.”

I guess regular people who pay taxes are also losers and suckers.

[Anonymous]

Is the media busy pouring over Joe Biden's 180 years of income taxes????

[Anonymous]

So some people on social media have calculated that Trump has $1.1B in loans plus whatever he has off the books with Russia.

The pandemic has absolutely killed both his hotel and golf properties.

Funny, you would think he would be working harder to get the country safe so people could travel, rather than just ordering people "back to work."

[Anonymous]

There's a paywall. Not everyone can read it.

There are free snapshots all over twitter and other news sites.

Welcome to the 21st century.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So Trump is like 75,000,000 other Americans who pay no income taxes.



As a CPA I can professionally tell everyone here that >99% of DCUMers have absolutely no idea how business or high wealth taxes work, yet will jump to whatever conclusions they see fit.

Look at amazon as an example. Every letter to shareholders they advocate for “maximizing the present value of future cash flows” (if you don’t know what that means you have no hope of understanding Trump's tax returns).

Ultimately it is a strategy to reinvest cash flows into future earning potential to avoid paying income taxes. Amazon as a company had negative net income but was still worth hundreds of billions of dollars due to generating massive future free cash flow.

At some level, if you have positive net income as a business, you don’t know what to do with your money and are happy to waste some on tax. That sums up trumps tax returns - he doesn’t want to waste any money paying taxes.

Reading New York Times attempt to analyze trumps tax returns is like reading a toddler try to interpret Benjamin Graham. NYT's hack job is pure cringe worthy. They aren’t even consistent on how they talk about depreciation and never even mention what free cash flow even is.

To all the democrats out there - this ain’t it chief. Of course this will never get brought to light with a free and fair counter argument published in the NYT, because discussing gritty aspects of the US tax code is a snooze fest. Gotta sell the hyperbole and outrageous headlines.

Trump is not as smart or visionary as Jeff Bezos. He could be doing the same thing, but he could also just be committing tax fraud. Until we actually see his taxes, we'll never know for sure. But based on his refusal to reveal them, I'm going to go with him committing tax fraud. Prove me wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So Trump is like 75,000,000 other Americans who pay no income taxes.



As a CPA I can professionally tell everyone here that >99% of DCUMers have absolutely no idea how business or high wealth taxes work, yet will jump to whatever conclusions they see fit.

Look at amazon as an example. Every letter to shareholders they advocate for “maximizing the present value of future cash flows” (if you don’t know what that means you have no hope of understanding Trump's tax returns).

Ultimately it is a strategy to reinvest cash flows into future earning potential to avoid paying income taxes. Amazon as a company had negative net income but was still worth hundreds of billions of dollars due to generating massive future free cash flow.

At some level, if you have positive net income as a business, you don’t know what to do with your money and are happy to waste some on tax. That sums up trumps tax returns - he doesn’t want to waste any money paying taxes.

Reading New York Times attempt to analyze trumps tax returns is like reading a toddler try to interpret Benjamin Graham. NYT's hack job is pure cringe worthy. They aren’t even consistent on how they talk about depreciation and never even mention what free cash flow even is.

To all the democrats out there - this ain’t it chief. Of course this will never get brought to light with a free and fair counter argument published in the NYT, because discussing gritty aspects of the US tax code is a snooze fest. Gotta sell the hyperbole and outrageous headlines.

Nah, you didn't read it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the media busy pouring over Joe Biden's 180 years of income taxes????

He never hid them so...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So some people on social media have calculated that Trump has $1.1B in loans plus whatever he has off the books with Russia.

The pandemic has absolutely killed both his hotel and golf properties.

Funny, you would think he would be working harder to get the country safe so people could travel, rather than just ordering people "back to work."

Because he's an idiot that can't cope with adaptation. For him, every problem gets fixed with the same solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the media busy pouring over Joe Biden's 180 years of income taxes????

Biden isnot anEstablished grifter touting himself as self-made, now is he?

#DeadbeatDonnie.

[Anonymous]

Someone is confirming the story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Trump is like 75,000,000 other Americans who pay no income taxes.



As a CPA I can professionally tell everyone here that >99% of DCUMers have absolutely no idea how business or high wealth taxes work, yet will jump to whatever conclusions they see fit.

Look at amazon as an example. Every letter to shareholders they advocate for “maximizing the present value of future cash flows” (if you don’t know what that means you have no hope of understanding Trump's tax returns).

Ultimately it is a strategy to reinvest cash flows into future earning potential to avoid paying income taxes. Amazon as a company had negative net income but was still worth hundreds of billions of dollars due to generating massive future free cash flow.

At some level, if you have positive net income as a business, you don’t know what to do with your money and are happy to waste some on tax. That sums up trumps tax returns - he doesn’t want to waste any money paying taxes.

Reading New York Times attempt to analyze trumps tax returns is like reading a toddler try to interpret Benjamin Graham. NYT's hack job is pure cringe worthy. They aren’t even consistent on how they talk about depreciation and never even mention what free cash flow even is.

To all the democrats out there - this ain’t it chief. Of course this will never get brought to light with a free and fair counter argument published in the NYT, because discussing gritty aspects of the US tax code is a snooze fest. Gotta sell the hyperbole and outrageous headlines.

Trump is not as smart or visionary as Jeff Bezos. He could be doing the same thing, but he could also just be committing tax fraud. Until we actually see his taxes, we'll never know for sure. But based on his refusal to reveal them, I'm going to go with him committing tax fraud. Prove me wrong.

You don't have to be smart or visionary to have tax accountants and lawyers to help you setup the structure.

[Anonymous]

I have worked in taxes for years. These are always hard stories to report because even the more educated readership doesn't really understand taxes. So, they have to boil it down and oversimplify complicated issues. But here are a few of my own takeaways from all of this:

-- This really isn't about how little in taxes he paid, it's about how badly he runs his businesses. Of course you don't pay taxes if you don't have a profit/income. So while the $750 in tax paid is a great lede for a story like this and a soundbite, it isn't really evidence of tax cheating so much as it is evidence that HE SUCKS AT BUSINESS. UNLESS:

-- The deductions were falsified/inflated. There are hints of this.

-- I'm genuinely curious how the Times got this information. They say they got it from sources (plural) with "legal access." This narrows the list down to several possibilities: SDNY, IRS, Congress. Trump's own accountants, Trump himself. Based on the fact that the SDNY and Congress were suing for access and the fact that the Times only has returns through tax year 2017, I'm going with the IRS or someone in the Trump organization. My hunches are: Michael Cohen or the IRS commissioner who left the IRS on Oct. 1, 2017 or someone involved in the tax audit. Or both. The president's tax returns are literally locked in a vault in the IRS Commissioner's office. They're also audited every year.

-- This is NOT legitimate losses generated by depreciation. The Alternative Minimum Tax has a different set of depreciation rules. This is completely driven by losses that are being deducted. The question is whether the losses are legitimate or not. If they are, no harm, no foul but he SUCKS AT BUSINESS. If they are not, he's likely committed a crime and should go to prison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Trump supporter by a long shot. But as a CPA, I'd want to see the actual tax returns. $750 tells me nothing. He may have been taking deductions that are allowed according to the U.S. tax code. Show us the actual returns.

As a CPA, you’re probably aware of the potential legal pitfalls of claiming massive losses to avoid paying federal income taxes while inflating your revenues and assets on bank documents for loan purposes. Wouldn’t you tell your client that constitutes fraud?

No. Not at all. The accounting systems for tax and for financial reporting purposes are substantially different beasts.

This. The general public just doesn't understand enough about the different reporting systems.

You know, I know next to nothing about tax law, but I do know that someone who lives like Donald Trump should be paying a lot more than $750 in taxes, and that Trump's tax reform only exacerbated this problem.

Ignorant and proud of it!

You go girl/guy!

Name-calling... looks like I got a nerve. All the accountant-splaining in the world doesn't change the fact that Trump paid next to nothing in income taxes. Meanwhile, this is how his 2017 tax reform plan was described by the Center for Public Integrity:

"The 2017 law does modestly cut taxes for the lower and middle classes, but its main beneficiaries were the rich and corporations. And the law actually created more loopholes and tax breaks, experts say, favoring those who can afford pricey accounting help. Ed Kleinbard, former chief of Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which assesses tax legislation Congress proposes, called the law a “Christmas present to the donor class” and “an abomination.”

I guess regular people who pay taxes are also losers and suckers.

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.

He paid taxes at the level of poverty in some states. That doesn't sit right for a self-identified billionaire. It shouldn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone is confirming the story

Wow. He is NOT in good shape.

Thoughts and prayers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Trump supporter by a long shot. But as a CPA, I'd want to see the actual tax returns. $750 tells me nothing. He may have been taking deductions that are allowed according to the U.S. tax code. Show us the actual returns.

$750 says Trump pays less in taxes than most working Americans.

The NYTimes article says his businesses are not profitable, that some of his deductions are legally dubious, and that he is in massive amounts of debt. You had time to post here but not enough time to read the article?

There's a paywall. Not everyone can read it.

Journalists need to be paid. The $35/year for the full access subscription is more than Trump paid in taxes most years.

There's a long list of books queued up on my Kindle. That's where I get my fill of fiction.

Then keep your head in the sand.

Antivaxers have told me the same thing...