Sure, but non-filers and 25% omission cases* very *rarely end with a no-change. In fact, that’s kinda the definition of those cases. Same with Statute extensions.
The IRS has *no desire at all *to keep auditing dudes when the result is no significant deficiency. It hurts their stats. *If they keep auditing people, it’s because it’s worth it. *
His personal tax returns are not going to show this. The vast majority of his assets will be owned by one of the over 500 companies he is an executive of, you’d need the tax returns and share holder registers of all of those companies to work out the actual amount of assets he has direct control of. When you’re that wealthy you own very little directly in your own name, because a company can deduct many more expenses that you can personally, this is absolutely standard practise and is legal, but yes it goes against the image he has tried to cultivate of himself.
Financial disclosure statements of his company involvements were released some time ago, I suspect it would take dozens of analysts months to go through and work out what he actually owns even if they had access to all the documents.
Blink. Trump has received a NYC tax break of $302. One that I think you have to apply for, though the Trump campaign maintains it was awarded to him automatically and by mistake.
The difference matters, since the tax break is only available to those making less than $500,000 per year. Assume that his properties are spinning off a measly 1% per year and Trump is worth less than ONE TENTH BILLION DOLLARS. Huh. To be fair, his net worth was estimated in the early 2000s to be in the 150-250 million range IIRC. Banks estimated it at quite a bit higher, though far less than Trump reported.
TPM: Wait! What? Trump Only Makes $500k a Year? - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Crane’s Business, who did the sleuthing: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160308/BLOGS02/160309865/how-did-trump-qualify-for-a-middle-class-tax-break
MfM, exclusive to SDMB:
There’s a special application process for this. Confusingly it has changed recently:
New York State School Tax Relief Program (STAR)
But here’s a .pdf document for a 2012 application. So it looks like there’s always been a special process involved, though perhaps renewal has been automatic. Maybe some NY dopers could chime in.
http://www.yonkersny.gov/home/showdocument?id=926
There are other hypotheses that might explain this. Maybe Trump is a cheapskate who illegally applied for a $302 tax credit. (Does that make Trump an illegal?) But the explanation offered by the campaign appears to be dubious.
Maybe this deserves its own thread.
My sense of the surreal grows. I keep (stupidly) thinking that there’ll eventually be an end to the shit that can be dug up on him, true or not.
But then he hasn’t had the benefit of my doubt for decades anyway…
The TPM article suggests Trump might have been able to structure his income so that his income subject to personal taxation is very low. My ignorance of the US tax code is both deep and wide, but I wonder if his income could be somehow filed as business income among the 500 companies he supposedly runs, while his personal income is $1 or some shit. And his jet and clothes and all are business expenses, the business being Donald Trump Self Aggrandizement, LLC.
Could it be something like that?
Yes. That could play a role. Especially for the jet. As for the clothes, my WAG is that a stunt like that would receive IRS attention, unless they were something like theatrical costumes, or prep for Oscar night.
But an income below $500,000 seems off somehow. Don’t get me wrong. Warren Buffet might very well stay below that threshold, as his Berkshire Hathaway salary is a cool $100,000, while his billions are tied up in a stock that doesn’t pay dividends. But Buffett lives a middle class life. Trump does not. Something doesn’t fit.
Are there even transcripts to release? I can’t really picture a stenographer sitting on the sidelines at some corporate event taking down the various speeches verbatim.
I guess Kevin Drum did closer reading than I did. Drum concludes, “So Trump applied for this piddling $302 tax credit for years even though he didn’t qualify for it, and stopped only when they began checking income. What a dick.”
Apparently according to the Crane report authorities only started checking income in 2009.
I say we can’t know for sure until Trump follows the lead of every single nominee since 1952 and releases his tax returns. Trump promised conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he would release his returns over one year ago in Feb 2015. So why doesn’t he do it? Is he worth much less than he says he is? Is he trying to paper over his many failed businesses? Does he think his supporters are naive? Ok, ok, maybe he has a point here. Not clear.
It doesn’t look good. I’m worried and concerned about Trump: these erratic promises make him look scared and weak. Scared! Weak!
Josh Marshall on Twitter: “Another possibility is that Trump reports majority of income through “John Miller, Publicist” alter-ego. Standard strategy of super rich.”
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/732016441612992512
“Many super-wealthy assign income to multiple imaginary spokesmen as way to limit tax exposure.”
“Tax officials constantly try to slip people tax breaks they don’t want. Accountants have be perpetually on guard. Rigged system.”
I think the most sensible thing to do is take Trump at his word that he is very aggressive with his taxes. Practically speaking, what that means is that Trump does everything he can to minimize the reporting of net income to the government; the moment he signs his tax return is probably the one second of the year when he isn’t boasting about being rich.
And that, in my un-expert opinion, would help to explain the audits. He takes stupid deductions; I bet that there is a company entity that owns and operates most everything he personally uses - he might be charging himself to lease his apartment in Trump tower, just to show expenses that minimize his personal profit. All sort of things to, at the end of the day, make it look like Trump didn’t do so well that year.
And that, I would guess, is why he doesn’t want to release the returns. It’s not even that they would “prove” that he is not rich…rather, low information voters (his best supports) won’t understand the incongruity between someone who boasts about how rich he is but shows loss on his tax returns. It will undermine his best boast (about being some brilliant rich man) even if it doesn’t actually contradict the boast.
Didn’t Trump also say the IRS has audited him for 12 straight years? Gee, how could that possibly happen?!
Trump could very well have a personal income below $500,000. Almost everything he does could relate to promotion or a meeting of one of his companies, and thus the company in question pays for it. Jets and luxury cars? leased by his companies, he uses them for business and gets one of his companies to pay another of his companies for their usage. His homes in Trump tower NYC and Miami? Owned by a company, leased to another company for usage as partial office space, and / or maybe under his children’s names. Any public appearance he does is “promotion” and thus all expenses are claimed back and paid by one of his companies.
Just about the only things he can’t somehow get paid for this way are his meals when he’s eating alone, clothing and a vacation (unless he does a public appearance, then it’s promotion).
And being the entitled .1%'er who pays practically no taxes wouldn’t undercut his support at all…nooooo. So much for that ‘populist’ message.
He has a clothing line, doesn’t he? I’m thinking that wearing the clothing that is marketed under his name might be considered a business practice and that therefore clothing from his line might be supplied to him free of charge and not considered to be income.
You can’t do that legally.
And now, imagine him eating alone for a change.
He suddenly realizes, oh, crap; this won’t count.
But our hero thinks fast!
HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill!
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” - Leona Helmsley
Wooosh!
Well, in SPY magazine’s cheapest celebrities stunt, Trump was one of only two people to bother to deposit 13-cent checks. And that tax credit is 232,000% more valuable.
Aren’t things of value still considered income? If you actually reported (as opposed to lied about) that you receive $50,000 worth of clothes in lieu of payment, wouldn’t the law require you to pay tax on that $50,000 value?