Last Friday, six years of Donald Trump's federal tax returns were released to the public by the House Ways & Means Committee, the culmination of a long battle of their disclosure that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Reviewing the documents, it's revealed why he didn't want them to be revealed in the first place. Among other revelations, they show that the former president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last years of his presidency.
Specifically, they validate a report issued by the Joint Committee on Taxation that detailed how Trump claimed large losses before and throughout his presidency that he carried forward to reduce, or practically eliminate, his tax burdens. For example, in 2015 he carried over a $105 million loss, followed by a $73 million loss in 2016.
However, the thousands of pages of documents from the former president's personal and business federal tax returns--spanning from 2015 to 2020--illuminate the complex web--long shrouded in secrecy--that is Trump's finances, producing many questions about his so-called wealth that might be of interest to both the IRS, as well as his political opponents.
Here are the major take-aways from the documents, reviewed by Political Plug:
High Number of Questionable Claims & Eyebrow-Raising Interest Amounts
The Joint Committee on Taxation reviewed the documents and did not have good news for the former president, flagging a large number of claims of questionable items, as well as interest amounts on loans to his children that could indicate he was disguising gifts.
For example, in each year of his presidency, Trump claims to receive exactly $18,000 in interest on a loan he had given his daughter Ivanka Trump and $8,715 in interest from a loan to son Donald Trump Jr. And from 2017-2019, his son Eric Trump paid $24,000 each year, and an additional $19,605 in 2020.
However, according to Martin Sheil, former supervisory special agent for the IRS' Criminal Investigation Unit, "It's unusual to have interest in round numbers--very rare. An auditor would want to see payments, loan agreements, and interest rates."
But the amounts of loan interest aren't the only ones that are questionable...
In 2017, Trump claimed his business DJT Aerospace LLC--which operates his personal helicopter--claimed $42,965 in income. In the same year, they claimed the exact same total--$42,965--for their expenses.
Former SSA Sheil says that this is not, in itself, evidence of something illegal, but added, "Total expenses equaling total income is a statistical impossibility. It just doesn't happen."
Foreign Bank Accounts While in Office
According to the documents, Trump maintained foreign bank accounts during all five years on file, from 2015-2020, including a Chinese bank account from 2015-2017.
As with anyone, he was required to report these accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [FinCEN]. Those filings show that he maintained bank accounts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and China.
The Chinese bank account comes with no surprise as it was reported on by The New York Times in 2020. Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said at the time that it was "tied to Trump International Hotel Management's business push in the country,"
Honestly, with a businessman like Trump, who's assets span the globe, foreign bank accounts aren't super surprising. But if "following the money" reveals one's heart, Trump's does not lie in the United States.
In 2017, due to the prior-mentioned carry-forward losses, Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes. In that same year, Trump paid nearly $1 million to foreign countries.
With all of those global assets, the documents show how Trump's companies and business interests are subject to local tax laws and regulations.
On his tax return, Trump listed business income, taxes, expenses or other notable financial items in:
Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada, India, Qatar, South Korea, the United Kingdom, China, the Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Grenada, US territory Puerto Rico, Georgia, Israel, Brazil, St. Maarten, Mexico, Indonesia, Ireland, Turkey, and St. Vincent.
No Charitable Deductions in 2020
During his presidency, Trump pledged he would donate the entirety of his presidential salary--totaling $400,000--to charity every year, often boasting that he had donated parts of his quarterly paycheck to a variety of government agencies.
"While the press doesn't like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000 to different agencies throughout the year," he tweeted in March of 2019.
However, according to the documents released on Friday, during the year of 2020, he listed no charitable donations at all. This is an odd variation compared to the large charitable deductions he reported in 2018 & 2019, which helped to reduce the amount he owed on millions of dollars in income he reported those years.
His finances took a bit of a dive in 2020, however, probably due to the pandemic preventing people from traveling, decimating the demand for vacations and lodging in his hotels. That year, he reported a $4.8 million adjusted loss, which completely eliminated his federal income tax burden.
To be clear, that means that self-proclaimed billionaire Donald Trump paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2020.
But it's not just his lack of charitable deductions, but some of his charitable deductions themselves that raise additional questions. For example, in 2015 Trump claimed a $21.1 million deduction for donating 158 acres of his 212-acre property called Seven Springs in North Castle, NY, to a land trust. That donation also being a focus of the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal investigation into the Trump Organization's finances.
A Note on Presidential Audits
The House Ways & Means Committee--which is responsible for overseeing the IRS and writing tax policy, and who released Trump's tax returns to the public--requested the returns under the authority of Section 6103 of the US tax code for a report focusing primarily on whether Trump's tax returns during his time as president were properly audited under the IRS' mandatory audit program for US presidents.
Their research, however, showed that the IRS only ever opened one "mandatory" audit during Trump's presidency--for his 2016 tax return. That audit not taking place until 2019, Trump could've easily released his own tax returns--assumably in lesser volume--during the period that he claimed them "being under audit" was barring him from releasing them.
Comments