Friday, July 10, 2020

Trump's IRS "deal"


This is the second time I've seen mention of a deal Trump made with the IRS years ago.  Something about not having to pay taxes for 20 years???

I want to know more about this deal.  Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
Trump lost $1.17 billion between 1985 and 1994 according to 10 years of Trump's tax information obtained by the New York Times, with the amount more than "nearly any other individual American taxpayer" during that period. Although Trump has acknowledged the tax-advantaged nature of the real estate business due to large depreciation write-offs to generate losses and reduce tax liabilities, the Times reported "depreciation cannot account for the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses."[30][31][32] Due to losing more than $500 million in combined losses, section 172 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 gave Trump $915.7 million in tax exemption, which he used to pay off 8 years of taxes.[33][34][35]

Parts of Trump's 1995 and 2005 tax returns have been leaked.[36][37]

In October 2016, The New York Times published some tax documents from 1995. The New York Times reported that the Times had been given three pages of certain state tax returns for Trump for the year 1995. The materials indicated that Trump incurred a $916 million net operating loss which, for Federal income tax purposes, could have prevented Trump from owing any Federal income taxes for up to 18 years.[38]

Trump claimed on his tax returns that he lost money, but did not recognize it in the form of canceled debts. Trump might have performed a stock-for-debt swap. This would have allowed Trump to avoid paying income taxes for at least 18 years. An audit of Trump's tax returns for 2002 through 2008 was "closed administratively by agreement with the I.R.S. without assessment or payment, on a net basis, of any deficiency." Tax attorneys believe the government may have reduced what Trump was able to claim as a loss without requiring him to pay any additional taxes.[40][41] It is unknown whether the I.R.S. challenged Trump's use of the swaps because he has not released his tax returns. Trump's lawyers advised against Trump using the equity for debt swap, as they believed it to be potentially illegal.[42]

  Wikipedia
So 18 years from 1995 only gets to 2013.  What is Trump claiming the IRS abandoned in 2015?  Or is he admitting he ran for president more than once?  Someething he has lied about several times - that his 2016 run was his first.  However you slice it, Trump is lying about the IRS "deal".   And I'd still like to know what that deal was.  It may not have been a deal at all.  Just a huge loss that kept him from having to pay taxes for a long stretch.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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