Trump declared a $916 Million Dollar loss in his 1995 Taxes, might not have paid taxes in 18yrs

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a reply to: Elostone

Ikr...

When Donald Trump said not paying taxes made him smart, it made me think of Al Capone. Maybe it's Trump who belongs in prison... for tax evasion.

Heres a thought. If he hadnt paid anything he would be in JAIL right now. So obviously he is satisfying his legal requirements under the tax code.

Some people are saying Donald's a genius if he found a way to avoid paying taxes for 18 years. I wonder if these people also think its genius when people find creative ways of collecting welfare or unemployment. Or if an illegal immigrant finds a way to get free healthcare. Does that make them genius? Or is it only when rich people like Donald game the system that its deemed genius?

Of course we know the answer... the answer is hypocrisy.

Trump declared a $916 Million Dollar loss in his 1995 Taxes, might not have paid taxes in 18yrs

Well i see another Romney was pulled.

Sent 'anonymously' through the mail!

I wonder, if this was such a brilliant move by Trump, why did it take this leak before he owned up to it? If it's such an admirable, even genius move to not pay taxes for 18 years, why not brag about this from the beginning?

I mean seriously. Trump didn't do anything wrong. He's right. He's smart. He's using the tools given to him (the 1995 Tax Code) to earn money for his business. How does that make him a bad person? HOW?

Besides, if he done anything illegal the IRS would have already nailed him to the wall like James brown and Martha Stewart. Al Sharpton gets to do and say what ever he wants and not pay taxes and that idiot is still walking the street.

Did Trump really lose that much money in a single year? It seems all but impossible.

Among millionaires who declared losses in 1995, the average amount was $614 thousand.

It seems likely, then, that Trump's gargantuan loss was basically an accounting fiction of some kind.

John Hempton, an Australian hedge fund manager and former expert on tax avoidance for the Australian Treasury, has a theory that Trump may have "parked" the debt from his bankruptcies with a dummy party offshore, where it was never collected but never officially forgiven.

This would allow him to declare $916 million in losses even though he never truly lost anything.

What was the point of all this? Most likely, the Times speculates, it was used as a tax loss carry forward, which allowed Trump to declare zero income—and thus pay zero taxes—for as long as 18 years.

www.motherjones.com...

originally posted by: roadgravel
seems likely, then, that Trump's gargantuan loss was basically an accounting fiction of some kind.

John Hempton, an Australian hedge fund manager and former expert on tax avoidance for the Australian Treasury, has a theory that Trump may have "parked" the debt from his bankruptcies with a dummy party offshore, where it was never collected but never officially forgiven.

This would allow him to declare $916 million in losses even though he never truly lost anything.

Now, that is very interesting.

Why do I feel like this is just the beginning.

I really don't expect anything to stick, which is OK with me - - as long as he isn't president.

To keep things relatively simple, I’m telling you what I see in Trump’s returns, based on my decades of experience parsing financial filings.

To give you the brief version, people who qualify as real estate developers or managers can use depreciation deductions to offset non-real-estate income. But people who don’t qualify for this special treatment can’t do that. (For full details, ask a tax expert about Section 469 of the tax code.)
...
Now, to the $900-plus million loss reported by the New York Times — which vastly exceeds any cash losses that Trump would have suffered in the collapse of his casino-hotel-airline empire, which fell apart in the early 1990s and resulted in four bankruptcies. (He had two more bankruptcies, in 2004 and 2009, from a publicly traded company in which he was the primary shareholder.)

I’m guessing, but I can’t tell for sure — there’s not enough information — that the loss has to do with the collapse of his empire. I don’t understand how Trump, who had very little of his own cash invested in his projects in the 1990s but did personally guarantee part of their debt, could end up with tax losses of that magnitude. They’re almost certainly paper losses rather than out-of-pocket losses.

It’s possible that those losses somehow vanished into the ether from which they came — we have no way to tell.

www.washingtonpost.com... -about/

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: roadgravel
seems likely, then, that Trump's gargantuan loss was basically an accounting fiction of some kind.

John Hempton, an Australian hedge fund manager and former expert on tax avoidance for the Australian Treasury, has a theory that Trump may have "parked" the debt from his bankruptcies with a dummy party offshore, where it was never collected but never officially forgiven.

This would allow him to declare $916 million in losses even though he never truly lost anything.

Now, that is very interesting.

Why do I feel like this is just the beginning.

I really don't expect anything to stick, which is OK with me - - as long as he isn't president.

Actually this is a non story. why? Trump was called the financial comeback kid that year by the new york times. Reason he apparently didnt pay any taxes was the restructuring most likely. Or he used the same loopholes the rest of the new york elite used then.

originally posted by: yuppa

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: roadgravel
seems likely, then, that Trump's gargantuan loss was basically an accounting fiction of some kind.

John Hempton, an Australian hedge fund manager and former expert on tax avoidance for the Australian Treasury, has a theory that Trump may have "parked" the debt from his bankruptcies with a dummy party offshore, where it was never collected but never officially forgiven.

This would allow him to declare $916 million in losses even though he never truly lost anything.

Now, that is very interesting.

Why do I feel like this is just the beginning.

I really don't expect anything to stick, which is OK with me - - as long as he isn't president.

Actually this is a non story. why? Trump was called the financial comeback kid that year by the new york times. Reason he apparently didnt pay any taxes was the restructuring most likely. Or he used the same loopholes the rest of the new york elite used then.

It is not a non-story. It may be only the beginning.

The amount of money is questionable.

Even if its legal - - - its a red flag.

Lock him up... Lock him up...

a reply to: Annee

So lock up a man for a LEGAL LOOPHOLE. This looks more and more like jealousy of the rich from the left in the democratic party and the republican party. they do this to every outsider. If politicians handled their finances the same way they would also be red flagged.

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: Annee

So lock up a man for a LEGAL LOOPHOLE. This looks more and more like jealousy of the rich from the left in the democratic party and the republican party. they do this to every outsider. If politicians handled their finances the same way they would also be red flagged.

It's FACT.

What the hell? Jealousy?

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: Annee

So lock up a man for a LEGAL LOOPHOLE. This looks more and more like jealousy of the rich from the left in the democratic party and the republican party. they do this to every outsider. If politicians handled their finances the same way they would also be red flagged.

It's FACT.

What the hell? Jealousy?

Yes jealousy. Not from you per se but from those who are poor and not on the same financial level. this is another way they divide people and how they keep in power. Ooh look he has more than you do. he must be bad! people individually are smart but in groups are dumb.

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: Annee

So lock up a man for a LEGAL LOOPHOLE. This looks more and more like jealousy of the rich from the left in the democratic party and the republican party. they do this to every outsider. If politicians handled their finances the same way they would also be red flagged.

If he's dealing with offshore accounts and shuffling debt, this may NOT be legal. He can blame a tax accountant if he likes, but at the bottom he was the one who approved of this. Note that his personal wealth did not go down.

...and that's just one year. What about the other years? Did he shovel more debt into his debt pit?

If he (and other wealthy people) paid their fair share of taxes like we in the middle class do, we'd have more money to repair the potholes in the roads and fix bridges and hire more teachers and expand schools so that nobody's teaching 35 kids in a tiny classroom. And we'd end a lot of problems because that much more money would be more jobs.

So if Mr. Trump wants more jobs, Mr. Trump can start looking at fewer loopholes and paying more taxes.

originally posted by: Bloodydagger
I mean seriously. Trump didn't do anything wrong. He's right. He's smart. He's using the tools given to him (the 1995 Tax Code) to earn money for his business. How does that make him a bad person? HOW?

Besides, if he done anything illegal the IRS would have already nailed him to the wall like James brown and Martha Stewart. Al Sharpton gets to do and say what ever he wants and not pay taxes and that idiot is still walking the street.

It's an issue because Trump made it an issue. Nothing with the legality, but everything about this claim

"Trump pays more taxes in a year than most people will earn in a lifetime." - In that trump does not pay taxes (as per the only tax records we have available show).