Reply to 8 Years of Trump Tax Returns Are Subpoenaed by Manhattan D.A.

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "8 Years of Trump Tax Returns Are Subpoenaed by Manhattan D.A."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Michael Cohen was Trumps legal counsel for the Stormy Daniels transaction and has admitted responsibility for any criminal campaign finance violations.   That is a complete defense for Trump as to any criminal charges which is why he wasn't charged by the feds.  Cohen did not implicate Trump in Cohen's own criminal activity.  To prove a.criminal charge of campaign finance violation they have to show specific intent to break campaign finance law on the part of Trump.  Cohen never said that Trump ever directed him to violate the campaign finance laws.   That was Cohen's own idea. [/quote]

And to think of all of the politicians that were brought down by simply having a hooker, regardless of how it was financed. Seems so quaint now. [/quote]

Stormy did not receive 130K in exchange for sex, which is illegal in most places.  She received the money in exchange for a non disclosure agreement, which are legal everywhere although sometimes deemed unenforceable.  In this case, Trump paid 130K for an NDA which Stormy claimed was unenforceable and as a result Trump released her from it.  In other words Trump received nothing of value in exchange for what he paid.  Thus he committed no criminal campaign finance violation.[/quote]

The State of New York’s point is that the Trump Organization didn’t call that payoff what it was and called its reimbursement of Michael Cohen for that payoff legal services or something else that was totally false. [/quote]

To unpack this, non disclosure agreements are pefectly legal in NYS although in this case perhaps legally unenforceable.  In this case the Trump Organization, which is a separate legal entity from Donald J. Trump, the individual, reimbursed Michael Cohen for his payment to Stormy Daniels on behalf of Donald J. Trump.

The only real issue from a taxation standpoint would be whether or not the Trump Organization improperly (or properly?) deducted the payment (not "payoff", it was completely legal for Stormy Daniels to accept that payment; she was never charged with a crime nor should she be for accepting that money to remain silent) as a "business expense" and as a result paid a lesser amount of taxes than it otherwise would have.

If the payment (not "payoff) was miscategorized as a "legal expense", that does not necessarily mean the Trump Organization underpaid its tax liability as a consequence of the miscategorization of the payment.   And it certainly does not imply that anyone in the Trump Organization responsible for preparation of its tax returns (probably the CFO or comptroller) committed a crime.

Since Donald J. Trump is a key figure in the Trump Organization, the payment could legitimately be deducted as a business expense to the organization for the preservation of the organization's intangible good will value.  There is at least a good faith argument to be made there.

Alternatively, the Trump Organization could recategorize the payment as "other compensation" or "income" to Donald J. Trump, if it is deemed reimbursement of a purely personal expense of Donald J. Trump.  This would be analagous to using a corporate credit card on a business trip for some personal expenses (with permission of the employer of course) and then having the corporation count that as part of the employee's income (rather than as reimbursement of a business expense).    If so, the Trump Organization might have to send Donald J. Trump a 1099 form to correct the error, and Donald J. Trump might have an additional tax liability due to the Organization's error in failing to properly account for the payment as income to Trump.

Regardless, it doesn't constitute criminal fraud or criminal tax evasion.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics