Tax Returns for President Donald Trump and a Critique of the Taxpayer’s Misdemeanor: Investigation of Loan Agreements Trump Made with His Children
In the last couple of decades, nothing is what Trump paid in federal income taxes. Given his massive and mysterious income tax refund of nearly $73 million in 2010, Trump may not have paid net positive income taxes in his life. And he is not alone. Many billionaires pay no income tax, and many do so perfectly legally.
The returns were obtained by the Democratic-run committee only a few weeks ago after a protracted legal battle. The committee voted last week to release the tax returns, but their release was delayed to redact sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers.
“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” Trump said in a statement following the release.
The tax returns for President Donald Trump show how he has been successful and that he has been able to use depreciation and other tax deductions to create thousands of jobs and magnificent structures.
The JCT, which made no claims that Trump should have paid more or less in taxes in the years it reviewed, argued that an auditor should investigate the loan agreements Trump made with his children, including the interest rates. If the interest Trump is said to have charged his children was not at market rate, it could be considered a gift for tax purposes, and if he paid a higher tax rate on the money, he would have to do it again.
The JCT said in its report that there was a question about whether the loans were legit arm’s length transactions, or whether the transfers were gifts that could have triggered gift tax and disallowance of interest deductions.
“It’s unusual to have interest in round numbers – very rare,” said Martin Sheil, former supervisory special agent for IRS’ Criminal Investigation unit. The auditor would like to see the payments, loan agreements and interest rates.
The 2020 Tax Disclosure that Left DJT Aviation Inc. With No Income, Neither of the Company Earned Income, nor of the China
Trump claimed a $42,965 profit from his business DJT Aviation Inc. that operates his personal helicopter. The same amount was claimed in expenses. In other words, every single dollar – to the dollar – that the company earned was negated by the company’s expenses, such as payroll, fuel and other items. That left the company with zero income – and nothing to tax.
Alan Garten of the Trump Organization said in 2020 that a China bank account was part of Trump International Hotels Management’s push to enter the country.
The 2020 disclosure of business dealings in China came as the Trump campaign sought to portray opponent Joe Biden as a “puppet” of China. Biden’s income tax returns and financial disclosures showed no business dealings or income from China.
The fact that Trump paid foreign taxes isn’t surprising, but it shows how his business interests span the globe and they are subject to local tax laws and regulations.
The committee found that the IRS only audited Trump’s 2016 tax return. And that didn’t take place until the fall of 2019, after Chairman Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, first sent a letter asking the IRS for Trump’s returns and tax information. The report characterizes the presidential audit program as “dormant.”
Other Republicans also criticized Democrats’ efforts in pursuit of the tax returns as political, with Texas Rep. Kevin Brady – the committee’s top conservative – saying a release would amount to “a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president and overturns decades of privacy protections for average Americans that have existed since the Watergate reform.”
The House passed a bill last week to reform the process of presidential audit before the Republicans take control of Congress. The legislation is not expected to be taken up by the Senate before the new Congress is sworn in.
Top 10 Surprises in Trump’s Tax Returns: The 2016-2020 Mellon Report on Non-Donational Donations to Charity
The report showed that Trump carried forward losses of $108 million on his returns in 2015.
The latest data dump has thousands of pages of returns, exhibits and schedules. Dedicated accountants and journalists will pore over these documents and we are sure to see plenty of headlines like “Top 10 surprises in Trump’s tax returns” in the coming days and weeks.
Trump entered the US presidency with a vast web of business holdings, including hundreds of limited liability companies, corporations and partnerships with operations both domestically and overseas.
If he donated his 2020 salary, he didn’t claim it on his taxes. The year 2020 was the lone year in which Trump did not list any donations to charity.
Between the year of 2017 and 2020 Trump claimed he had received over $18K in interest on the loan he gave his daughter, as well as over $8K from Donald Trump, Jr. In the last two years, Eric paid Trump $19,605 in interest and his father received just $24,000.
His business operations were large and complicated, which resulted in concern about potential conflicts of interest, especially with foreign entities.
When the committee asked Treasury Department representatives about the apparent lapse, they declined to provide information about the actual operations of the mandatory audit program, according to the committee’s report.
The IRS hasn’t done much about tax returns in the last two years of Donald Trump’s presidency: Why don’t rich people pay their taxes?
Editor’s Note: Edward J. McCaffery is Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and a professor of law, economics and political science at the University of Southern California. He is the author of “Fair Not Flat: How to Make the Tax System Better and Simpler” and founder of the People’s Tax Page. The opinions expressed in the commentary are of his own. CNN has more opinion.
The criminal conviction of the Trump Organization shows that Trump and his company sometimes cross the lines of propriety.
Nothing is also what the IRS did in regards to Trump’s tax returns during his first two years in office until the Democrats took power and forced them to do something starting in 2019.
That’s unacceptable. The IRS can only audit wealthy people who have enough time or money to pay their taxes. why wouldn’t rich people pay their taxes?
Congress has not done anything about getting the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.
Maybe, just maybe, 2023 will be a better year for all. I can write nothing at all about Trump’s tax returns. Congress provided over $82 billion to strengthen the IRS as a part of the inflation reduction act, which is a good start in making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.