18 Revelations From a Trove of Trump Tax Records

[ZiprHead]

Scotland is also looking at Trump's finances. Apparently Trump's been stating the value of the his Scotland golf increases every year so Trump borrows from the golf course (from himself) about 5 million every year. Now Scotland is wondering where this money is really coming from. Money laundering?

 

[Gospel]

Too many comments not enough time. Has anyone (in this thread) mentioned that Trumps tax returns at a minimum confirms that there is no need for additional tax cuts for the rich?

 

[blastula]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1310772722142777344[/TWEET]

 

[lpetrich]

Democrats? Why not also Republicans?

I suspect that if any politicians try plugging those loopholes, those loopholes' defenders will howl about how doing so is raising taxes.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The nerve of people who ask “how are you going to pay for it?” whenever we propose building advanced public education, healthcare, & climate infrastructure yet defend a system where Trump pays $750 in taxes and Amazon pays none is beyond me." / Twitter


Tax Records Reveal How Fame Gave Trump a $427 Million Lifeline - The New York Times

Tax records show that “The Apprentice” rescued Donald J. Trump, bringing him new sources of cash and a myth that would propel him to the White House.

From the back seat of a stretch limousine heading to meet the first contestants for his new TV show “The Apprentice,” Donald J. Trump bragged that he was a billionaire who had overcome financial hardship.

“I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills and I worked it all out,” he told viewers. “Now, my company is bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.”

It was all a hoax.

...
Mr. Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame.

His income from "The Apprentice" bailed him out yet again.

Just as, years before, the money Mr. Trump secretly received from his father allowed him to assemble a wobbly collection of Atlantic City casinos and other disparate enterprises that then collapsed around him, the new influx of cash helped finance a buying spree that saw him snap up golf resorts, a business not known for easy profits. Indeed, the tax records show that his golf properties have been hemorrhaging millions of dollars for years.

He doesn't seem to have learned any worthwhile lessons from his failures, like that he is not as smart as he seems to think he is.

 

[lpetrich]

Divorced for the second time, and coming off the failure of his Atlantic City casinos, Mr. Trump faced escalating money problems and the prospect of another trip to bankruptcy court. On his income tax returns, he reported annual net losses throughout the 1990s, some of it carried forward year to year, a tide that would swell to $352.8 million at the end of 2002.

Few people knew this, however, because he kept up the relentless self-promotion that had served him well: a half-serious 2000 presidential campaign that lasted four months but got him on Jay Leno; a TV ad touting McDonald’s new $1 “Big N’ Tasty” burger; another ghostwritten book.

Then the producer of "Survivor" came up with a business version, "The Apprentice". Trump would say "You're fired" to contestants who drop out, until only one remains.

It seemed to some of "The Apprentice" production team that Trump would be awfully busy with his business.

“We walked through the offices and saw chipped furniture,” Bill Pruitt, one of the producers, told The New Yorker in 2018. “We saw a crumbling empire at every turn. Our job was to make it seem otherwise.”

Mr. Burnett wasted no time spinning the illusion of a successful and high-minded Mr. Trump, telling The Times in October 2003 that the new show was all about “Donald Trump giving back” by educating the public on how his can-do spirit had provided jobs and economic security.

“What makes the world a safe place right now?” Mr. Burnett said. “I think it’s American dollars, which come from taxes, which come because of Donald Trump.”

Then how much money Trump made off of "The Apprentice" and how much that money helped his finances.

Mr. Trump was not terribly discriminating in his choice of endorsements. He slapped his name on everything from steaks and vodka to a board game and cologne. For the benefit of “consumers interested in experiencing the Trump lifestyle at an affordable price,” as a news release put it, he signed a licensing deal with the Serta mattress company that eventually netted him more than $15 million. Another $15 million would pour in from Trump neckties, shirts and underwear by clothiers like Phillips-Van Heusen.

No endorsement was too small. Warner Music paid $100,000 to feature Mr. Trump in a collection of cellphone ringtones, with the Donald uttering phrases like, “You’re getting a phone call, and believe me, it better be important. I have no time for small talk, and neither do you.”

Then an endorsement of a laundry detergent, of all things.

Then a lot of stuff on his hotels. Then about another one of his passions.

While Mr. Trump’s tax returns tell the story of how reality TV and its reflected glow made him rich, they also shed some light on an enduring question that has generated much head-scratching, if not dark speculation: Where did he get hundreds of millions of dollars to buy and prop up his golf resorts?

...
Beginning in 2006, and continuing over the next decade, he would accumulate 11 more golf courses, forming a new core of what he describes as his empire.

How did he finance his beloved golf courses? Russians? Mobsters?

His tax records provide more mundane answers. They reveal that as he was pouring money into the golf resorts, he also pulled money out of other places in ways that suggested an immediate need. In 2012, he borrowed $100 million against his equity in Trump Tower in Manhattan, one of his more valuable properties. A year later, he withdrew $95.8 million from his share of a real estate partnership that owns buildings in New York and California. And in 2014, he sold $98 million in stocks and bonds.

 

[Artemus]

I think the biggest mystery is, how the *#^&! did he make $214 million (directly, with more from branding) from The Apprentice? Did people actually watch that shit?

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "One major promise that Trump *did* keep was to run the country like he ran his business.

Unfortunately for us that means incompetently, fraudulently, and rife with bigotry + corruption " / Twitter

Great response.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

His tax records show no illegality or Russia contacts. Just a rich guy who followed the tax code. But the Russia Truthers promised me Putin and hookers. So disappointing. Looks like the Russia money and prostitutes instead went to Hunter Biden.

They of course do not show any illegality directly. The issue is whether they match up with the real world--and it already looks like they don't.

If you are saying that owning a gun is legal, shooting a gun is legal, entering a bank is legal... but walking into a bank with a gun and shooting the guard is... um "not matching up with the real world".. I kind of wonder if you are able to admit he can possibly have done anything illegal.

I've been reading about several examples of the sort of thing I'm talking about.

For example, deductions for a rental home--that isn't rented out. Not renting out a second home, legal. Deducting costs for a rental home, legal. Taking those deductions when it's not being rented, not legal.

 

[Keith&Co.]

It's so weird, though.
Trump and his companies file about 110 lawsuits a year. I think he'd sue if he thought he could make it thru the yellow light but the guy in front of him chickened out.

Why hasn't he sued the NYT for libel? All this noise about the taxes being made-up bullshit, or being spun by people who don't understand business. You'd think the threat of the paper having to bring their copies into Discovery, where Trump'll bring his copies, the truth will out....
You really would think someone running a campaign would be able to justify some significant "damages" from this stunt, huh? Personal damages, business damages, campaign damages, loss of gace in the eyes of nations whose leaders are NOT serial bankrupters...

But no, no lawsuit. No countering disclosure of the REAL returns.

Weird.

 

[TV and credit cards]

If you are saying that owning a gun is legal, shooting a gun is legal, entering a bank is legal... but walking into a bank with a gun and shooting the guard is... um "not matching up with the real world".. I kind of wonder if you are able to admit he can possibly have done anything illegal.

I've been reading about several examples of the sort of thing I'm talking about.

For example, deductions for a rental home--that isn't rented out. Not renting out a second home, legal. Deducting costs for a rental home, legal. Taking those deductions when it's not being rented, not legal.

Taking those deductions when you are not trying to rent it, not legal. You can still deduct expenses on a vacant rental as long as you are actively trying to rent it.

 

[ZiprHead]

Democrats? Why not also Republicans?

I suspect that if any politicians try plugging those loopholes, those loopholes' defenders will howl about how doing so is raising taxes.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The nerve of people who ask “how are you going to pay for it?” whenever we propose building advanced public education, healthcare, & climate infrastructure yet defend a system where Trump pays $750 in taxes and Amazon pays none is beyond me." / Twitter


Tax Records Reveal How Fame Gave Trump a $427 Million Lifeline - The New York Times

Tax records show that “The Apprentice” rescued Donald J. Trump, bringing him new sources of cash and a myth that would propel him to the White House.

From the back seat of a stretch limousine heading to meet the first contestants for his new TV show “The Apprentice,” Donald J. Trump bragged that he was a billionaire who had overcome financial hardship.

“I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills and I worked it all out,” he told viewers. “Now, my company is bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.”

It was all a hoax.

...
Mr. Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame.

His income from "The Apprentice" bailed him out yet again.

Just as, years before, the money Mr. Trump secretly received from his father allowed him to assemble a wobbly collection of Atlantic City casinos and other disparate enterprises that then collapsed around him, the new influx of cash helped finance a buying spree that saw him snap up golf resorts, a business not known for easy profits. Indeed, the tax records show that his golf properties have been hemorrhaging millions of dollars for years.

He doesn't seem to have learned any worthwhile lessons from his failures, like that he is not as smart as he seems to think he is.

Yeah, I heard the crew when they when they were scouting the Trump offices for The Apprentice sets noted how cheap and ratty everything was and that it didn't look like the offices of a real billionaire.

Oops, now I see lpetrich beat me to it.

 

[lpetrich]

Revelation of vast 'consulting fees' threatens damage for Ivanka Trump | Ivanka Trump | The Guardian

She has tried to be the acceptable face of Trumpism while seemingly nurturing political ambitions of her own. But Donald Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, did not emerge from recent revelations over his financial affairs unscathed.

A nugget in the New York Times’s investigation into the US president’s tax returns could potentially cause lasting damage to Ivanka, currently a senior adviser to the president and a leading surrogate for his re-election campaign.

She apparently received “consulting fees” paid by the Trump Organization, helping reduce the Trump family’s tax bill, while she was simultaneously an employee of the organization.

“Trump’s private records show that his company once paid $747,622 in fees to an unnamed consultant for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia,” the Times noted. “Ivanka Trump’s public disclosure forms – which she filed when joining the White House staff in 2017 – show that she had received an identical amount through a consulting company she co-owned.”

2020 election news: Mary Trump has a stark warning about a Trump political dynasty | The Independent | The Independent - "In an interview with The Independent, the president’s niece says that she expects Donald Jr to try for office, but Ivanka could end up as vice president"

 

[lpetrich]

Liz Warren and Katie Porter SLAM Trump: "Trump could write a textbook on how to cheat America." - YouTube - about his $750 income-tax payment. Much less than what most ordinary people pay.

Also mentioned that he once got a big tax rebate, several million dollars or thereabouts, and that the legitimacy of that rebate is now being subjected to litigation.

 

[Keith&Co.]

His income from "The Apprentice" bailed him out yet again.

And even better than it looks.
When they ran Celebrity Apprentice, the celebs were donating any winnings to a charity they selected. I've seen in more than a few places that the show tried to pressure the winners to donate it 'through' Trump's charity Foundation.
Take the show's money, give it to Trump, then for sure honest we'll distribute it to your chosen awardee. Honest, we will.

No one ever explained why that would be a sound financial transaction.

 

[lpetrich]

Some Trump defenders brag that Trump gives all his Presidential salary to charity. But what charity? I wouldn't be surprised if he gives it to one of his scam charities.

 

[marc]

Some Trump defenders brag that Trump gives all his Presidential salary to charity. But what charity? I wouldn't be surprised if he gives it to one of his scam charities.

I’ve never seen any evidence he donates his salary at all. I think he is not legally allowed to run a ‘charity’ anymore anyway.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Some Trump defenders brag that Trump gives all his Presidential salary to charity. But what charity? I wouldn't be surprised if he gives it to one of his scam charities.

I’ve never seen any evidence he donates his salary at all. I think he is not legally allowed to run a ‘charity’ anymore anyway.

I think that's only in New York State.

But it would be interesting to know where his salary is "donated." I'm certain it isn't going to any reputable charity, and certain that he's still benefitting financially from the "donation" somehow.

 

[Elixir]

This was a good one from a week or two ago:

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Trump loses on tax subpoena, another legal setback

The president's lawyers will now likely ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block enforcement of the subpoena while they file an appeal. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has agreed not to enforce it for now, giving Trump's legal team a chance to ask the justices for an order temporarily blocking it while the court decides if it will take up the appeal.