Trump and the Tax Man

[Markinsa]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

I paid everything I owed.....certainly don't have a team of lawyers negotiating with the IRS, that's for sure.  Why would somebody need a team of lawyers to "negotiate" with the IRS in the first place?.....cookie jar, meet hand...hand, cookie jar.  

 

GO RV, then BV

 

 

 

A smart and conscientious business owner that wants to make sure he pays his fair share and not a penny more. Just like any other rational taxpayer. 

 

So we all now know President Trump in his business life did not evade paying taxes but actually had to pay and took the deductions afforded to him under our laws.

 

Thanks for the confirmation.

 

.

[Johnny Dinar]

I just heard he may owe the IRS 100 million. He may have to pay back his 79 million refund plus penalties and fees... You don't mess with the IRS... Just ask Al Capone.

[Johnny Dinar]

2 hours ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

In that year I grossed nearly $400,000 dollars. Guess what I paid in Federal taxes? 

 

How much did you write off for hair care???? That's the problem. It's not that as a business he wrote off expenses. I think most of us understand the concept.... I think what he wrote off may be what is going to cut him... JMHO

 

The other thing quite obvious from the details coming out, is that he is losing much more than he is making... In other words, he ain't so good at business... 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Johnny Dinar

[Johnny Dinar]

The fact he may owe 100 million to the IRS, plus he has nearly a half billion in debt coming due, I have to agree with LGD... People have been played... JMHO

Edited September 28, 2020 by Johnny Dinar

[Markinsa]

16 minutes ago, Johnny Dinar said:

The fact he may owe 100 million to the IRS, plus he has nearly a half billion in debt coming due, I have to agree with LGD... People have been played... JMHO

 

"He may" another liberal talking point without substance. It is like me saying you may owe $100,000 in back taxes. smh

 

Let me add the President Trump said he gets audited every year.  He more than likely has a big accounting firm conducting the audit, do you really think a big firm like those my company uses is going to risk their future filing fraudulent returns???

[bigwave]

2 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

That's 2 years out of 2 decades..

Sorry -

 

Trump has been audited every year for those years -

 

He said - It is very unfair. I just think it is part of the business expense. I have friends that never get audited...

 

If he did anything wrong he would have been busted by now.

 

Ben Franklin said to only pay the tax that was legal and zero more. 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

2 hours ago, Johnny Dinar said:

 

How much did you write off for hair care???? That's the problem. It's not that as a business he wrote off expenses. I think most of us understand the concept.... I think what he wrote off may be what is going to cut him... JMHO

 

The other thing quite obvious from the details coming out, is that he is losing much more than he is making... In other words, he ain't so good at business... 

And yet he's the Billionaire, not us. 

[Johnny Dinar]

1 minute ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

And yet he's the Billionaire, not us. 

 

Is he? We all know he exaggerates everything from his IQ to his waistline... I think he might have been stretching his wealth just a bit... JMHO

[Shabibilicious]

 

GO RV, then BV

[yota691]

[stt]

NY times anything that comes from this bird cage paper is bs, haven't you guys learned at least this by now 

[Shabibilicious]

Just now, yota691 said:

 

Oops....too late, per the NYT.    By the way, doesn't appear DJT is, or ever has been, a billionaire.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

1 minute ago, stt said:

NY times anything that comes from this bird cage paper is bs, haven't you guys learned at least this by now 

 

You mean the "failing" NYT.....that just keeps going and going and going and going and........

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Trump Doesn’t Think You Care About His Taxes. That’s How We Know They Really Matter.

 

 

Asia Ewart

Mon, September 28, 2020, 2:40 PM EDT

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 27: U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a question during a news conference in the Briefing Room of the White House on September 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump is preparing for the first presidential debate with former Vice President and Democratic Nominee Joe Biden on September 29th in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images) More

The New York Times released a bombshell report on Sunday that revealed President Donald Trump to be — shocker! — a chronic tax evader riddled with debt. After combing through over two decades of Trump’s tax information, reporters found “struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle, and hundreds of millions in debt coming due,” among other issues.

One of the major revelations of the report was that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in the year 2016, and another $750 in 2017 — and that he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the 15 previous years. Social media quickly lit up with rage: “In 2016 & ‘17, I paid thousands of dollars a year in taxes *as a bartender,*” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The report went on to reveal more fury-inducing details, such as the $70,000 Trump wrote off for his hairstyling needs while on The Apprentice; how his businesses have been losing millions of dollars since 2000, notably $315.6 million at his golf courses; and how he’s been in a decade-long audit battle with the IRS over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund.

After Trump decried the report as “FAKE NEWS!” on Twitter on Sunday night, he had more words on the matter by Monday morning, claiming in a rant that the Times published the story with “illegally obtained information” and that he has “very little debt compared to the value of assets.” Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, also claimed that “most, if not all, of the facts [of the report] appear to be inaccurate.”

 

At this stage in Trump’s presidency, the fact that he’s skirted the law for decades is unfortunately not a surprise. Outrage fatigue as a result of the constant barrage of terrible Trump news is real: On any given day, we are bombarded with more stories of him praising white supremacists, ignoring the basics of democracy, and allegedly swindling his own niece out of tens of millions of dollars. Still, the pundits at Fox News praise him and his base eggs him on. It is exhausting and demoralizing. But we need to keep up the outrage — and continue to take direct action aimed at removing him from office.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/trump-doesn-t-think-care-184023302.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

10 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

You mean the "failing" NYT.....that just keeps going and going and going and going and........

 

GO RV, then BV

Pretty much, just like cockroaches 

[Shabibilicious]

Is It Even Possible To Spend $70,000 On Hair? Stylists Break It Down

 

 

Jamie Feldman

·Fashion & Lifestyle Editor, HuffPost

Mon, September 28, 2020, 3:02 PM EDT

 

 

A recent bombshell New York Times report revealed that President Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, but an almost equally befuddling part of that report had to do with his hair.

The explosive new story, which details revelations like Trump writing off payments to daughter Ivanka Trump as “consulting fees” and debts of $421 million, also states he wrote off a whopping $70,000 on hairstyling expenses as host of “The Apprentice.”

On behalf of those of us who have overdrawn our bank accounts shelling out $300 for highlights, we must ask: How?

A request for answers from professionals on a beauty and style page on Facebook left me with some answers I expected: It’s possible but not probable; it could be due to a high day rate or medical procedure (like hair plugs); or perhaps some of that money goes toward NDAs that prevent stylists from disclosing details of their services. But the general consensus appeared to be that it would be pretty difficult to get to that number on salon services alone.

 

Joey Silvestera, founder of Blackstones and Five Wits salons in New York City, said he believes there are one of two scenarios at play here, but only one seems to him to be in the realm of possibility.

“When you do the math over a 12-month period, even if he went to a top stylist and colorist and went every four weeks, which most males do, it’s virtually impossible to hit those numbers,” he told HuffPost over the phone. “Unless there was some sort of medical treatment that year like hair plugs ― which still would be under $20,000 for one treatment ― I don’t think it’s very likely.”

The less cutting and more logical explanation, Silvestera said, is that Trump had a hairstylist on retainer, working for a salary of $70,000.

“That’s a normal salary for a mid-level hairdresser in places like New York City or Los Angeles, where it’s high fashion and a hard cost of living,” he said. “If he has a hairdresser who follows him around for photos, appearances, to make sure his hair is OK. It would include styling daily, haircutting, coloring, it sounds about right.”

Silvestera pointed to hairdressers he knows who work for morning news programs and make between $80,000 to $100,000. So while he said it’s easy to see how social media would twist it, the amount doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

However, if that’s not the case, Silvestera called the fees “the most expensive hair services I’ve ever heard of on the planet.”

Ashley Watts, a professional hair and makeup artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who also does commercial and editorial work, agreed that the amount is feasible. Her calculations, however, break it down in a slightly different way.

“On average for a political appearance, I make $500 to $1,500 for styling depending on the job, the person, the amount of time I need to be there, etc.,” she said. “But typically stylists who do this type of work are paid per day, on location, and most of us in the political world have to have high clearance to even be in the same room with politicians ― something also common with celebrities.”

According to that logic, Watts said she would guess the stylist is being paid $1,000 minimum per appearance. Calculate that out weekly for a year and you get $52,000 for the stylist fee alone.

Watts also made an educated — but unfounded — guess that Trump may wear a hair piece, which could contribute to costs.

“I would assume Trump would only want the best hair piece, made from quality material billed back to the beautiful taxpayers,” she said. “A custom hand-woven lace-front piece made with real human hair would cost about $2,000. He probably had someone who maintains keeping the specimen along with any custom pieces in his wardrobe. So, for the sake of the article, let’s say it’s cleaned once a month and repaired as needed ― that’s around $750 per month. So $9,000 for wig-keeping. Plus, let’s assume he has five pieces in rotation at $2,000 each. Would you look at that? $10,000.”

According to Watts’ guesses, $52,000 for styling, $9,000 for maintenance on hair pieces and $10,000 for “a couple of good custom pieces” total out to $71,000.

“As you can see, it’s pretty easy to come up with that total if he’s using freelance personnel for this type of service,” she said. “Actually, if this is what he’s paying, he’s probably getting a decent deal!”

We may never know for sure how Trump landed on a $70,000 hair write-off (in addition to reportedly written-off payments of close to $95,000 for “a favorite hair and makeup artist of Ivanka Trump”). These professional opinions are just that ― opinions. But the cost sure puts our ― and, oh, I don’t know, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s hair budgets ― to shame.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/donald-trump-hair-70000-190223170.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Just now, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Pretty much, just like cockroaches 

 

Highly successful constitutionally protected freedom of speech cockroaches they are.........don't owe $421,000,000 to creditors either.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Trump tax returns: ‘No question’ president and daughter Ivanka could face prison, says Watergate prosecutor

 

 

Gino Spocchia

Tue, September 29, 2020, 5:55 AM EDT

 

 

Former federal prosecutor Nick Akerman appears on CNN on Monday (CNN)

A former federal prosecutor who worked on the Watergate scandal has said Donald and Ivanka Trump could be imprisoned for “tax fraud” after leaving the White House.

Asked during an appearance on CNN whether the US president could face charges for years of alleged tax evasion following the publication of his tax records this week, Nick Akerman said there was “no question about it”.

“And his daughter could go to jail, too,” said he added of Ivanka, a White House adviser who was also named in a bombshell New York Times report on Mr Trump’s financial filings.

The report revealed Mr Trump had paid no federal income tax in 10 of the past 15 years having made - and lost - millions across his businesses.

 

The president paid only $750 (£583) in income taxes in 2016, the year he was elected, and the same sum again in 2017, despite boasting of being a billionaire.

“Tax evasion is a five-year felony,” Mr Akerman told CNN. “It’s a pretty serious crime, and the more money that’s stolen, the longer you go to jail for.

“It looks like Trump has done a whole series of activities that could qualify as tax fraud, not tax avoidance,” the prosecutor added.

“Tax avoidance is simply getting-taking the tax code and getting the most deductions you can get under the code that’s perfectly legal. Tax fraud however is lying about what your income was, what your deductions are, and there are just a couple of items that stand out in that report that appear to go beyond tax avoidance.”

Mr Trump, who has dismissed the Times report as “totally fake” but refused to discuss details or to publicly disclose his tax records, is also said to have paid his daughter for consultancy fees for “no legitimate reason”, as she was already employed by the Trump Organization.

Mr Ackerman speculated that the payment to Ms Trump was made in order for the president to avoid paying taxes.

Mr Trump could face investigations into his tax affairs if he loses to the Democrat Joe Biden in November’s presidential election, the prosecutor predicted.

“The only thing that’s saving him at this point is the Department of Justice’s guideline that says you can’t indict a sitting president,” Mr Akerman said. “Once he’s no longer a sitting president, he is subject to being indicted.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-tax-returns-no-president-095516154.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[bigwave]

18 hours ago, Johnny Dinar said:

I just heard he may owe the IRS 100 million.

Post your link please. 

 

JohnnyD - With all due respect it does not sound like you run your own business.

 

Have you every given an interview on TV like Nan Po?

 

You got to be looking good on TV - Don't you?

Edited September 29, 2020 by bigwave
finished the post

[Shabibilicious]

Trump tax returns are not just good for gossip. Here are 3 reasons voters should care.

 

 

Brian Galle, Opinion contributor

Tue, September 29, 2020, 7:19 AM EDT

 

 

Why do we care about President Donald Trump's tax returns? Is it just because they offer us another episode of reality TV, a window into the lives of the rich and famous?

I would argue there are at least three things we learned from the president's returns that should concern us as voters, not just as voyeurs. First, we learned that it is possible he has not been honest with the IRS, and may even face potential criminal liability for his dishonesty. Presidents demand sacrifices from citizens and from public servants. Some of us are asked only to pay taxes; others are asked to face death to defend us all. A president who will not even pay his fair share cannot lead.

While that is a troubling possibility, it is not certain that Trump paid any less than he owed. It is difficult to judge the honesty of a tax return without examining the surrounding facts.

Was Trump honest with the IRS?

 

Still, there are red flags that trained IRS investigators know to look for, and several of those red flags are waving in The New York Times report on the president’s returns. One of them is using a family business’ money to pay for personal or other family expenses. Trump has run into trouble for doing just that before; a New York court dissolved the Trump Foundation in part because Donald Trump converted its assets to his own use.

A family business is not like a foundation, in that its assets belong to the family. It’s totally legal to take money from a business you own. But when you do, you have to report that money as taxable income. In the case of a partnership, such as the Trump Organization, that income might not be taxed until a later year, but it still must be reported at the time it is withdrawn.

A common trick that tax-evading business owners use is to have the business buy things for them directly, and then not report the purchase as income for the owner. In my time as a federal prosecutor, I saw small businesses pay for their owners’ “home office” renovation — actually a lavish kitchen remodel — or for “compensation” for love interests of the owner that were actually just big gifts.

In front of the U.S. Supreme Court July 9, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

So when we read that the president claimed deductions for hair styling, private jets and big parties at his home, we are seeing behavior typical of expenditures investigators see in tax-evading family businesses. Sometimes these expenses are legitimate. No, you can’t deduct your hair stylist expenses. But for many questionable business expenses, an IRS auditor would have to give the taxpayer a chance to prove that, say, his mansion really is an investment property, not a playground for his adult children.

Consider the consulting expenses the Trump Organization reportedly claimed for payments that lined up with payments reported by an entity controlled by the president’s daughter Ivanka. If these were fair payments for valuable services rendered, they'd raise no tax issues.

Bring it on: Trump wants to run on his record. We hope he does. It's been a disaster for America.

But this is also quite similar to the transactions the president’s father, Fred Trump, used several decades ago to avoid taxes, as also reported in The Times. The elder Trump reportedly set up shell companies, owned by his children, and had these place-holder businesses overcharge him for services. In effect, Fred Trump gave gifts to his children, without paying income taxes on the value he took from his business or estate taxes on the money he passed to his heirs.

Was the president inspired by his father to set up businesses, overpay them and then use them to route money tax free to his kids? To know for sure, we’d need to learn more about what Ivanka’s company did, and whether experts think it charged a fair price for those services.

Often this kind of investigation is difficult and expensive, making it challenging for the IRS to discover wrongdoing. Most experts think the IRS is badly understaffed. And small business owners know both these things. By some estimates, the IRS collects less than 50% of the taxes owed by America’s self-employed.

Trump could be a security risk

So whether Donald Trump underpaid or not, a second lesson the president’s returns teach us is how broken our tax system has become. By the admission of the IRS itself, it can no longer afford to audit significant fractions of our wealthiest citizens. When it discovers what it thinks is wrongdoing, it often is outgunned by taxpayers’ lawyers and experts.

If his returns don’t clearly reveal he did anything wrong, why is President Trump so aggrieved about the revelation? He has reneged repeatedly on promises to reveal his tax returns, fought tooth and nail in court to protect them, even secured the appointment of a business associate of his tax lawyers to be chief counsel of the IRS. We can’t be sure what he finds so embarrassing, or so damaging. Maybe it’s the simple fact that he owes about $400 million to persons or powers unknown.

Trump and the election: Ignore the strongman fantasies. If Trump loses the election, he'll lose his job. Period.

But that brings us to our last lesson. When public officials engage in very aggressive tax planning, right or wrong, that planning itself can be a security risk. For whatever reason, the president did not want us to know what was in his returns. And that means those who held bits of that information — his creditors, the folks who worked with Ivanka’s maybe-consulting company, even his hairdresser — had potentially valuable information. Do we know what they wanted in exchange for keeping it to themselves?

That’s the kind of compromising situation that usually prevents federal job applicants from obtaining security clearance. As voters, we all have to pass judgment on whether this president should have clearance to govern for another four years.

Brian Galle, a law professor at Georgetown University specializing in economics and tax law, spent three years as an attorney in the Criminal Appeals and Tax Enforcement Policy Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Tax Division. Follow him on Twitter: @BDGesq

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-tax-returns-not-just-071502505.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Trump's Old Tweet About Obama’s Taxes Is Looking Super Awkward Now

 

 

Ed Mazza

·Overnight Editor, HuffPost

Mon, September 28, 2020, 1:49 AM EDT

 

 

An old post from President Donald Trump complaining about taxes paid by then-President Barack Obama is looking especially awkward in light of the explosive New York Times report about his own taxes.

Obama in 2011 paid $162,074 in federal taxes on gross income of $789,674, according to the return he released that year.

Trump has not released his own taxes, but the New York Times reported on Sunday that he paid no federal income taxes that year.

Yet on Twitter, Trump at the time complained that Obama’s rate was 20.5%, according to an old tweet that’s resurfaced in light of the new revelations:

 

The Los Angeles Times reported at the time that Obama’s tax rate was slightly lower than average for people in his tier due to $172,130 in charitable donations that year.

Trump’s write-offs include $70,000 in hairstyling costs for “The Apprentice,” while much of his charitable giving was in the form of conservation easements, or agreements not to develop certain properties, including land around an estate the Trumps use as a family retreat.

Trump, the Times reported, paid just $750 per year in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 and nothing in 10 of the previous 15 years due to massive financial losses.

The newspaper noted at one point that 2014 marked four years in a row where Trump paid nothing in taxes ― meaning he paid zero in 2011, the same year Obama paid $162,074 in federal taxes, and also zero in 2012, when he fired off that tweet.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-obama-old-tax-tweet-054907800.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

2 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

Trump tax returns: ‘No question’ president and daughter Ivanka could face prison,

As someone NOT supporting Trump but seeing the reality of things, I truly feel sorry for anyone stupid enough to even attempt to arrest Trump. 

That person's life expectancy would be shorter than a California fruit fly. 

[Shabibilicious]

39 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

As someone NOT supporting Trump but seeing the reality of things, I truly feel sorry for anyone stupid enough to even attempt to arrest Trump. 

That person's life expectancy would be shorter than a California fruit fly. 

 

Always comes down to threatening violence by conservatives who support Trump and his misdeeds. Odd.

 

GO RV, then BV 

[new york kevin]

He may owe . Didn't pay his taxes . Call me back when you do know something you Trump hating dolts. Like the Dems and Mainstream Marxist Media got all this Trump Tax info from legitimate legal sources such as the IRS ? This is all heresay and nothing more at.this point. I read an article yesterday, that said for the tax time frame in question that Trump paid a huge chunk of $$$ , $62 million (I didn't write quotes down) . That when Mr Obama increased the Look Back period , the amount of time you can apply business losses to taxes paid during previous years ; Mr Obama's IRS increased it from 2 years to 4 years. So when Trumps Casino went bust, and the expanded Look Back period was re- applied back to this alleged tax period and he got most of his money back in a refund. Funny these fact are not memtioned in your british article , oh fans of Mr Steele. Kinda paints a different picture huh ? When this thing RV's I am gonna hire Trumps guys to set up my estate and.to do my taxes. What is their business name again ? Oh yeah, even that is not mentioned in this made up MMM dis-information article.

[new york kevin]

4 hours ago, yota691 said:

Amen. Thats what I am talking about .