Trump May Have Avoided Paying Taxes for Nearly Two Decades

[Lakhota]

Trump: The One Billion Dollar Loser! You're fired.

 

[OKTexas]

I didn't bloviate. I pointed out your asinine partisan ranting is bullshit. Sorry that you don't like it but I do not need to go running off to disprove random claims you make that you never bother to back up in the first place.

I stated; 'ALL tax goodies for the rich/wealthy were written by Republicans. I know, I use them every quarter.'

If you have some/any evidence that I'm incorrect, please post the evidence without bloviating.

Reagan tax cuts were pass by dems, Clinton cut taxes, so no, I don't think they are all written by republicans, especially considering the number of wealthy businesses, lawyers, bankers and investors that support dems. They all have their lobbyist.

Democrats wrote the Reagan tax bills? Really?

Tax bills are written in the house ways and means committee. Who ran the house at time?

What about IRS rules?

They're supposed to be designed to implement law, why?

 

[Clementine]

All this liberal outrage over the fact that he may have avoided paying some taxes. Never mind that it was legal because of losses. Never mind that Hillary used the same laws to decrease her tax liability. Never mind that Hillary illegally accepted foreign donations for her campaign or that she and the DNC cheated to steal the nomination away from Sanders. The left is outraged that Trump benefitted from the legal tax code.

 

[OnePercenter]

Hey short-bus! That's number three!

Hey fake one percenter, you didn't specify which regulations you were talking about.

Tax regulations that benefit the rich/wealthy. Can you name one written in the last 45 years by a Republican that doesn't?

 

[OKTexas]

Trump: The One Billion Dollar Loser! You're fired.

Poor thing, you're just jealous that you don't have a billion to risk on an investment.

 

[Jroc]

This is approaching Bernie Madoff level fraud

Legal is not fraud.

Who said what he's Doug is legal?

It's certainly not legal for him to funnel money through his foundation.

Really?...You're joking right?..The Clintons have gotten filthy rich using their foundation ...you're joke

Actually, the Clinton's have gotten filthy rich making speeches. And paying taxes on their income from speeches. You can check that out, since their taxes have been released as a matter of tradition.

People bought influence through the Clinton foundation. The same way they did by paying outrageous amounts for Clinton's speeches. it's a money laundering, cesspool, of crony corruption. 100s of millions of dollar flow through that foundation, paying off their crony friends, employing their political allies..The Trump foundation in comparison is peanuts 100s thousands.

 

[320 Years of History]

Introduction:
Let me be clear from the get go. I do not have a problem with Trump's having availed himself of the tax laws that allow him the likely net operating loss (NOL) carryforward (see also: The Net Operating Loss Carryback and Carryforward - AccountingTools). It was allowed and that's that.

That said, I don't care who one is, single handedly being the person responsible for the business decisions that resulted in a company's (a company the size of Trump's at the time) losing nearly a billion dollars in one year is enough to get pretty much any CEO fired, and most especially a CEO who is as closely involved in his business as Trump is in his. Now it didn't get Trump fired because his businesses are privately held and he's now as then the primary holder of them and the other owners can't sell their shares of ownership in it on the open market.


About the NOL itself:
For whatever tax deductions it gave him, losing $916M dollars in one year is not a smart thing to do. Nobody, nobody starts a business year or plans for the following year by thinking, "Okay. I'm going to lose nearly a billion dollars because it'll give me NOLs that will reduce my income tax liability for years to come." Operating losses are something that happens as a result of bad decision making. Why the decision(s) were bad is beside the point. They were very bad, terrible in fact, business decisions and deducting their cost on one's tax return is nothing more than making the most of a very, very bad business decision.

Now I haven't looked at the full return that's been making the news recently, but I do know that the -$916M figure being cited may not actually be the "starting" sum of the NOL Trump had. That figure could well be the sum carried forward, and then only using part of it to offset his 1995 income tax liability, rather than representing the actual sum of an operating loss he experienced in 1995.

Just to put Trump's NOL into perspective consider this. If you were to earn $100M in 2016 and pay federal income taxes at 30% (meaning you don't do much at all to minimize your tax liability), you'd have a preliminary $30M federal income tax liability. Now if you had a $900M NOL carryforward from 2015, you'd have an actual tax bill of $0. In 2017, unless you have a preliminary federal income tax liability of $870M,. you will also pay zero in federal income taxes.

Let's look at a $900M NOL a slightly different way. Assuming one pays taxes at 15% (that was Mitt Romney's effective tax rate), how much must one earn before all of a $900M NOL is "used up?" $6,000,000,000. One would need to earn $6B over the course of the following 20 years, or 18 years if one exercised the two year carryback election. Bear in mind the preceding figures assume one actually has a preliminary tax bill to begin with.

Frankly, I think 15% as an effective tax rate for Trump's companies is an overestimation of what his rate would be. The reason I think that is what I understand to be the average effective tax rate, according to a NYU Stern School report, in the industries in which he does business:

• Hotels: 11.34%
• REIT: 2.17%
• Real Estate Development: 1.06%
• Real Estate Operations and Services: 11.19%
• Real Estate General/Diversified: 9.4%
• Entertainment: 3.25%

What about Trump's so-called "comeback" after having a $916M NOL?
Well, we all know that Trump thinks his business acumen is "the best thing since sliced bread." Analysts seem to differ. Based on John Griffin's analysis, Trump has underperformed his peers by some 48% to 57%. That says more about just how easy it is to make money in Trump's industry. There aren't many places where one can underperform and still be a billionaire, or as near to being one as makes no difference. That combined with the seriously stupid-sh*t things he's said and done publicly over the past year and a half do not make Trump seem smart at all. What the man is is lucky. Period.

 

[OnePercenter]

The problem is Republicans writing tax laws that benefit the rich and fuck the middle class.

Really? Well I'm middle-class and I don't recall one time the Republicans fucked me. The only one that fucked me was DumBama with his commie healthcare plan nonsense.

Well short-bus, how about FICA during Reagan, wage disparity with costs fought by Republicans, and all of those wonderful tax breaks for the rich.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Well short-bus, how about FICA during Reagan, wage disparity with costs fought by Republicans, and all of those wonderful tax breaks for the rich.

Didn't affect me one bit.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Tax regulations that benefit the rich/wealthy. Can you name one written in the last 45 years by a Republican that doesn't?

Certainly. In effort to get along with the idiot in the White House, they increased capital gains taxes, they increased corporate taxes, they increased taxes on those making 400k per year. Anything else you'd like to know?

 

[OnePercenter]

Clinton Campaign Admits Hillary Used Same Tax Avoidance "Scheme" As Trump

Oops.

Here is the Clinton tax form. Would you like to compare and contrast with Trump?

https://m.hrc.onl/secretary/10-docu...linton_2015_Form_1040_with_Signature_Page.pdf

 

[Jroc]

Role of Hillary Clinton’s brother in Haiti gold mine raises eyebrows

In interviews with The Washington Post, both Rodham and the chief executive of Delaware-based VCS Mining said they were introduced at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative — an offshoot of the Clinton Foundation that critics have long alleged invites a blurring of its charitable mission with the business interests of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their corporate donors.

He said Rodham was compensated with stock options that will not vest unless the project is a success. He said Rodham has not landed any investors, adding, “It sounds like people were not interested in Haiti.”

Rodham confirmed that he has received stock options in VCS and that they have not yet vested, saying, “Never seen ’em.”

“I’m just trying to help him out a little bit. If it ever accomplishes anything, great,” Rodham said of Viard, adding that the people of Haiti “got a bad deal”

Role of Hillary Clinton’s brother in Haiti gold mine raises eyebrows

 

[OnePercenter]

No. My trust paid 4% of all the money that was made in federal tax.

What percentage of federal tax based on all the money that you made did you pay. I'll bet it's much more than me.

My trust paid 4% of all the money that was made in federal tax.

Cool.
What was the Trust's revenue? What was the Trust's income?

I'll bet it's much more than me.

I have little doubt of that. Not for the reason you claim.

We've already been through that. Look it up.

Ahhh, come on, you can repeat your lies here.

The fact that you can't wrap your head around fact is an effigy to your ignorance.

I wrapped by head around your lies just fine.

Yet you can't refute anything.

 

[Jroc]

My trust paid 4% of all the money that was made in federal tax.

Cool.
What was the Trust's revenue? What was the Trust's income?

I'll bet it's much more than me.

I have little doubt of that. Not for the reason you claim.

We've already been through that. Look it up.

Ahhh, come on, you can repeat your lies here.

The fact that you can't wrap your head around fact is an effigy to your ignorance.

I wrapped by head around your lies just fine.

Yet you can't refute anything.

There's nothing to refute. You haven't provided anything to back up your assertions ..whats to refute?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

FALSE!

FALSE: Hillary Clinton Cut Her Tax Bill by 'Donating' $1 Million to Herself via the Clinton Foundation

the Clinton foundation or the Clinton "family" foundation. WTF is the difference?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The problem is Republicans writing tax laws that benefit the rich and fuck the middle class.

Really? Well I'm middle-class and I don't recall one time the Republicans fucked me. The only one that fucked me was DumBama with his commie healthcare plan nonsense.

Well short-bus, how about FICA during Reagan, wage disparity with costs fought by Republicans, and all of those wonderful tax breaks for the rich.

how about FICA during Reagan

What did Reagan do with FICA? Be specific.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

My trust paid 4% of all the money that was made in federal tax.

Cool.
What was the Trust's revenue? What was the Trust's income?

I'll bet it's much more than me.

I have little doubt of that. Not for the reason you claim.

We've already been through that. Look it up.

Ahhh, come on, you can repeat your lies here.

The fact that you can't wrap your head around fact is an effigy to your ignorance.

I wrapped by head around your lies just fine.

Yet you can't refute anything.

I already showed that Federal tax rates on trusts are higher than individual rates.
Because you lied.

 

[Ame®icano]

Clinton Campaign Admits Hillary Used Same Tax Avoidance "Scheme" As Trump

Oops.

Here is the Clinton tax form. Would you like to compare and contrast with Trump?

https://m.hrc.onl/secretary/10-docu...linton_2015_Form_1040_with_Signature_Page.pdf

My post is about hypocrisy. Leftists are attacking Trump for using legal tax loophole, while saying nothing about Clinton using the same loophole.

 

[easyt65]

If so, he successfully accomplished, through legal means, what every American longs to accomplish and what many US corporations have done as well.

And the problem is....?!

 

[Frank'sRules]

If so, he successfully accomplished, through legal means, what every American longs to accomplish and what many US corporations have done as well.

And the problem is....?!

Not every American longs for that in any way, shape, or form. There is no free lunch, except for people like Trump.