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

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[quote=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.

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