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18 Revelations From a Trove of Trump Tax Records

Trausti said:
ZiprHead said:
Trausti said:
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.
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How do you know they show no russian contacts or illegality? Is this the same as your usual tactic of pulling it from your hind quarters?

What it does show is either one of two things:

1) He's a terrible businessman and is losing money hand over fist.

or

2) He's an incredible tax cheat and fraudster.

The $79 million dollar refund that the audit is about is because he's claiming losses on the casinos he ran into the ground. The way I heard it explained is that the tax filer can only claim losses if he got nothing in return. Trump got a 5% stake in the companies that took over his casinos. And as we have all seen, Trump and his lawyers are masters at delaying and avoiding legal procedures against them.
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So your criticism is that he’s claiming a refund under Obama’s tax code? And he has not profited from his presidency? Oh, dear!!!!!
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Rereading my post shows I never said any such thing.

Trump claimed in 2016 that he has been under audit for twelve years. I don't understand how "Obama's tax code" applies here. Could you explain?
 
Trausti said:
It’s bizarre that Trump having had down years financially is treated as some great revelation. The dude wrote a book about going broke and coming back.
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If there's nothing damning in the article, why is the orange toddler freaking out on twitter?

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1310432401454235650[/TWEET]
 
[TWEET]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Last year Republicans blasted a firehose of hatred + vitriol my way because I treated myself to a $250 cut & lowlights on my birthday.<br><br>Where’s the criticism of their idol spending $70k on hairstyling?<br><br>Oh, it’s nowhere because they’re spineless, misogynistic hypocrites? Got it. <a href="https://t.co/xCQGwW7EK5">https://t.co/xCQGwW7EK5</a></p>— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1310388421286920193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/TWEET]
 
[TWEET]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarackObama</a> who wants to raise all our taxes, only pays 20.5% on $790k salary. <a href="http://t.co/bqF26mQf">http://t.co/bqF26mQf</a> Do as I say not as I do.</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/190866856624668672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2012</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/TWEET]
 
Trausti said:
Elixir said:
Trausti said:
Russia contacts? Oh, yeah. Never mind.
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The only comment from a local "I'm not a Trumpsucker".
Such a surprise.
Thank you for weighing in, Trausti. There are so many trolls about, it's really courageous of you to demonstrate that you're not one of them. :rolleyes:
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His tax records show no illegality or Russia contacts. Just a rich guy who followed the tax code. owes an undisclosed foreign entity or entities hundreds of millions of dollars and is getting paid branding fees by at least one foreign entity to whom he militarily bequeathed an entire territory, abandoning allies to slaughter on the battlefield. So disappointing.
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FIFY
Can you say "conflict of interest"? Can you say "emoluments"?
Didn't think so.

Looks like the Russia money and prostitutes instead went to Hunter Biden.
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Saw evidence of that in Trump's taxes, did you? ROFL. Nice subject change.
I have a feeling we just saw a synopsis of tomorrow's debate, if Trump shows up.
 
Trausti said:
Damn. It must be so weird living in a world where you see conspiracies everywhere. Get out of the house, dude.
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The intellectual equivalent of calling me a poopy head.

No response to the content of the post but simply a handwave of statements by the Trumps themselves. A near 1000 page volume of a 5 volume report, signed off by the Republican members of the Intel committee.

Your side on the other hand believes in Spirit Cooking, and shoots up pizza parlors looking for nonexistent basements, and is the rubbish heap for racists and religious maniacs. The nexus of ill formed ideas: religious, economic, epistemic, moral, aesthetic, and anything else conceivable.

I'd say you should be embarrassed to proffer such a response, if I suspected you had any capacity for it, but I will say go cram it with walnuts until you can actually formulate a point. This fake news bullshit doesn't exactly fly when people can sit and read the posts in order, as well as cite references.

Funny, too, that you're going to the mat for Trump being a successful person (or at least putatively more than people posting here).

TDlTy2H.jpg
 
Trausti said:
Damn. It must be so weird living in a world where you see conspiracies everywhere. Get out of the house, dude.
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Defending Trump by saying his critics see conspiracies everywhere.

Is there a world that encapsulates chutzpah, irony and lack of self awareness in equal measures? If not, I think we're going to need such a word before this election cycle is over.
 
So basically it appears that Trump et al have been living high off the hog on borrowed money and the bills will be coming due very soon. Not one of his businesses are making money and he has personally guaranteed loans of more than $400 million coming due. How is he to repay them?

This house of cards is about to collapse.
 
ZiprHead said:
So basically it appears that Trump et al have been living high off the hog on borrowed money and the bills will be coming due very soon. Not one of his businesses are making money and he has personally guaranteed loans of more than $400 million coming due. How is he to repay them?

This house of cards is about to collapse.
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Nah, he can settle by serving up the US's membership in NATO to his boss. What a deal maker.
 
Is paying an employee and then also claiming their pay as a consultant for the tax deduction a good example of legally following the tax code?
 
Will Trump be able to adapt his eccentric executive style to the demands of this new arena? Will he even try? Throughout his career, according to people who know him, Trump’s ego has grown and his patience has dwindled, intensifying his tendencies toward imperiousness and impetuousness.

...
Back in early 2004, before Trump was a potential leader of the free world, his executive philosophy was already coming under attack by management theorists. The Apprentice pitched business as conflict—a cutthroat, zero-sum, winner-take-all scramble. “Life’s a vicious place. No different than a jungle,” Trump explained to USA Today.

This did not sit well with actual business leaders. ...

... He wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the contestants weren’t set up as teams but rather “circular firing squads—hardly the staffing pattern of an enduring enterprise.” He went on NBC and said the show was “being sold as the secrets of success. It’s not.”
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Seems very Randroid, like what made Sears fail -- its CEO had the idea of getting its employees to compete with each other.
 
Shadowy Man said:
Is paying an employee and then also claiming their pay as a consultant for the tax deduction a good example of legally following the tax code?
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This is the sort of thing that makes plenty of business for tax lawyers, I'm sure.

Looking at the lengths that Trump was willing to go to avoid paying taxes, one has to ask how much he pays his lawyers to help him out on it. Given what such lawyers likely charge, it is likely much more than the taxes he pays.
 
Shadowy Man said:
Is paying an employee and then also claiming their pay as a consultant for the tax deduction a good example of legally following the tax code?
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Also, paying Kushner's lawyers for counseling during congressional testimony on the 2016 election is definitely not a business expense but he took the deduction anyway.
 
Rhea said:
It’s an interesting look at his finances. Presumably any losses you use to write off gains means that overall you are not earning any money - you’re living off savings.

Unless yu aer somehow cheating, and the losses are not losses, and that money goes into your pockets, like when you give it to your daughter as a fee to consult for the company she works for. Or if you somehow pay your “vendors” but your vendors are you.

So if he is not cheating, then he has had no income for 10 years and is burning through his assets, in debt up to his orange neck. And if he is cheating, then he’s a looser AND a crook. I think the evidence points to the latter.
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While it usually means you're living on savings there are a couple of exceptions:

1) Your "income" is an appreciating stock portfolio that you are not selling, just living on margin loans against it. There are times when this makes sense (the tax bill would normally come home to roost when you sell but if you do this until the day you die the tax bill vanishes.) This also has the advantage of not diluting the ownership. (It would be an attractive strategy for Buffet if he wanted more income, it might be a good strategy for Bezos.)

2) Your "losses" are depreciation of real estate--in practice real estate rarely depreciates. The tax bill comes home to roost when you sell the real estate.

3) In the past you could play a game like this with whole life insurance--taking out loans against the policy value, exploiting the fact that the growth causes no taxes unless the policy is cancelled. I believe they have changed the tax code enough to make this one no longer viable.

3a) The variation on this that still exists for big businesses--buy life insurance on your employees. Life insurance proceeds are tax free, when you have enough employees to average it over and are placing so many policies at once that the cost of doing so is low enough it can produce non-taxable income.
 
Trausti said:
Elixir said:
Trausti said:
Russia contacts? Oh, yeah. Never mind.
Click to expand...

The only comment from a local "I'm not a Trumpsucker".
Such a surprise.
Thank you for weighing in, Trausti. There are so many trolls about, it's really courageous of you to demonstrate that you're not one of them. :rolleyes:
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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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
Trausti said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
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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.
 
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