Trump’s taxes

[Eric]

So do we think Chris Wallace will ask Trump tonight about his monumental indebtedness?

(Trump: fake news i owe nothing ask joe biden about hunter yada yada)

I think he has no choice. If he didn't it would be front page news everywhere and his credibility would be completely lost. I get that he works for Fox News but I've seen him be fair and hard hitting to those on both sides of the aisle, I'm hoping we see that tonight as well.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Don’t know if this was already posted somewhere, but if you only made $18,000 last year and don’t have any dependents you paid more income tax than Trump.

 

[Eric]

Don’t know if this was already posted somewhere, but if you only made $18,000 last year and don’t have any dependents you paid more income tax than Trump.

Yeah but why didn't that single mom working two jobs while raising her family hire a team of lawyers to find the proper loopholes?

Oh wait, this isn't PRSI and I'm not a dick Republican... carry on.

 

[Alli]

So do we think Chris Wallace will ask Trump tonight about his monumental indebtedness?

(Trump: fake news i owe nothing ask joe biden about hunter yada yada)

We certainly hope so!

 

[lizkat]

Don’t know if this was already posted somewhere, but if you only made $18,000 last year and don’t have any dependents you paid more income tax than Trump.

Poor People's Campaign clearly had their 2020 online event too soon, should reboot it.

 

[JayMysteri0]

 

[lizkat]

On the matter of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and the slaughter of Jamal Khashoggi... yet another column from the late Khashoggi's American employer, the Washington Post. This time it's the publisher himself who has put up a column using some pretty strong language. Uncle Joe has that one coming if you ask me. Of course Biden doesn't regard his decision as having given "one free murder pass" to the Crown Prince, but that's how it will have been taken if Biden's list of lower level sanctions is the end of promised "accountability". The reckless MBS will just make sure he distances himself better in future when doing away with a pesky journo in the employ of an American newspaper of record...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1366440040004521987/

 

[JayMysteri0]

A Justice Department Ruling Paves The Way For A House Panel To Get Trump's Taxes

The Justice Department said the Treasury Department "must furnish" the Trump tax materials to House lawmakers. But it's far from clear that the information will become public.

www.npr.org

The Justice Department has paved the way for a House panel to get former President Donald Trump's tax returns in what could be the beginning of the end of years of delay and court battles.

In a new legal opinion released Friday, the department concluded that the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked "sufficient" legislative reasons for access to the sensitive materials, including what the panel said were "serious concerns" about how the Internal Revenue Service is operating an audit program for presidents.

The ruling's author, acting Assistant Attorney General Dawn Johnsen, pointed out that the move amounts to a reversal of a 2019 memo by the same office at the Justice Department, which was then under the Trump administration.

But the earlier opinion, Johnsen wrote, "failed to give due weight to Congress's status as a co-equal branch of government with legitimate needs for information" to exercise its constitutional authorities.

The Justice Department said the Treasury Department "must furnish" the Trump tax materials to House lawmakers.

But it's far from clear that the information will become public. To be sure, the Justice Department highlighted the need to protect any taxpayer's privacy before disseminating the information to the full U.S. House of Representatives or in a public report.

Trump had argued that Democratic lawmakers wanted his tax returns as part of a politically motivated effort to embarrass him. The Republican former president could still launch an objection in federal court to any sharing of his tax information.

 

[lizkat]

Man, that document really covered all the bases in advance of the usual GOP suspects' expected clownish reasons for not going along with their Democratic Party counterparts' insistence on having an investigation with the temerity to call for Trump's tax returns. They cited pieces of a Trump-era DoJ document treating the same topic differently and went to the trouble to refute all the questionable assertions in that thing.

Check out this footnote, one of many...

*27 The 2019 Opinion elsewhere stated that “‘Congress’s legislative function does not imply a freestanding authority to gather information for the sole purpose of informing the American people.’” 2019 Opinion at *19 (quoting Assertion of Executive Privilege over Documents Generated in Response to Congressional Investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, 36 Op. O.L.C. __, at *7 (June 19, 2012) (Holder, Att’y Gen.)). There is no need for us to examine this question because here, as in virtually all cases involving congressional investigations of government officials, Congress is not purporting to exercise any such “freestanding” authority. It is instead acting to inform both itself and the public with respect to matters on which legislation can be, and has been, considered and enacted.

I mean they even got the single quotes inside double quotes in there where needed. An A+ on proofreading.

All this wading out into the tall grass of legal precedent, House precedent, Ways and Means Committee precedent was necessary, just to deter in advance the antics of full House members on the GOP side like Jordan, Gaetz, Gohmert and MTG etc... the ones who come to work with a script of irrelevant partisan takes on everything and would dismiss a committee request for Trump's tax returns with calls to look up Hunter Biden's dress trousers one more time, or maybe draft a going-nowhere resolution yet again to repeal the ACA in its entirety. These poor excuses for American congress critters in the House Freedom Caucus forget who's got the gavel in the House these days, and with any luck are also forgetting that they need votes from more than just Trump's fan base to keep their seats in 2022.

 

[Alli]

This is going to be interesting.

 

[Herdfan]

This is going to be interesting.

I don't think so. Other than provide some insight on how much he has made, I don't think there is going to be anything of value.

I base this on having some idea of how wealthy people do things. The like to hide things inside LLC's and partnerships so that only the totals hit their tax returns. But there is no backup, just the raw number.

 

[Alli]

I base this on having some idea of how wealthy people do things. The like to hide things inside LLC's and partnerships so that only the totals hit their tax returns. But there is no backup, just the raw number.

What about how people who are only perceived as wealthy do things? What about all the borrowed money, where and from whom it was borrowed?

 

[Herdfan]

What about how people who are only perceived as wealthy do things? What about all the borrowed money, where and from whom it was borrowed?

Probably not. It will have been borrowed by LLC's and partnerships. Tax returns do not list debts. So unless he borrowed money in his name, it won't show up on the returns. Interest paid may if he borrowed it personally, but not if borrowed by another entity.

You have to get those tax returns which may have multiple investors/partners who will all fight their info being released.

 

[SuperMatt]

I don't think so. Other than provide some insight on how much he has made, I don't think there is going to be anything of value.

I base this on having some idea of how wealthy people do things. The like to hide things inside LLC's and partnerships so that only the totals hit their tax returns. But there is no backup, just the raw number.

When The NY Times got some info leaked from Trump’s returns, it was a huge story, and quite interesting. If these returns will have even more information, then they will be very interesting to look at. The thing is, any LLC’s that you suggest might exist need to file as well, and those records can be obtained. Decent journalists can put it all together and figure out how far his (alleged) financial crimes go.

In case anybody forgot...

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance (Published 2020)

The Times obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.

www.nytimes.com

So he’s either lying about how rich he is or lying on his taxes... or both.

I guess the info might not be interesting to his supporters because, as Trump said himself, he could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Ave. and they would still support him.

 

[Herdfan]

One of these days you all will figure out the really rich don't pay taxes. Doesn't matter if they are conservative, liberal, moderate or progressive.

Some examples:

Zuck never has to pay taxes again | CNN

Mark Zuckerberg will pay between $1 and $2 billion in taxes. But don't cry for him, says Edward McCaffery.

www.cnn.com

Secret IRS files show billionaires skip tax

The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg.

www.tampabay.com

 

[DT]

Relative to my debt, handouts (from Daddy, etc.), and current financial situation - both in a business and personal capacity - I've been much more fiscally effective than the Orange Fucknuts.

I also have been married only once, have a family who loves me and is always around, haven't paid hookers to pee on me, am not scared of animals, can throw *and* catch a baseball, don't wear Prince-Shoes and dance around to YMCA like a __fucking__ imbecile.

 

[SuperMatt]

One of these days you all will figure out the really rich don't pay taxes. Doesn't matter if they are conservative, liberal, moderate or progressive.

Some examples:

Zuck never has to pay taxes again | CNN

Mark Zuckerberg will pay between $1 and $2 billion in taxes. But don't cry for him, says Edward McCaffery.

www.cnn.com

Secret IRS files show billionaires skip tax

The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg.

www.tampabay.com

You must not have seen my posts about Jeff Bezos.

My response was to you saying it won’t be interesting. Based on the frequent coverage of billionaires not paying taxes, and our current President saying he will do something about it, I’d say it’s something a LOT of people have a very strong interest in.

Also, the excuse of ”other people did it too” doesn’t cut it for Trump or anybody else.

 

[Alli]

One of these days you all will figure out the really rich don't pay taxes. Doesn't matter if they are conservative, liberal, moderate or progressive.

I think we pretty much know that. We just want them to admit it if they don’t, and more importantly have the tax system changed so that they pay more than the downtrodden lower class.

 

[Herdfan]

You must not have seen my posts about Jeff Bezos.

and our current President saying he will do something about it, I’d say it’s something a LOT of people have a very strong interest in.

I did not.

There was an article somewhere that I can't find now about how they do it. It was more of an example than anything, but it was something like this:

Zuckerberg would pledge his FB stock against loans he took. Since it is a loan, it is tax free. Say he takes $20M/yr in loans. He is 37, so over the next 50 years, that is $1B in loans. Plus another $1.5BM or so in interest. So he now owes $2.5B. He is worth $132B. So he dies and his estate must settle his debts. Since he is now dead, his estate can sell his FB stock at current value to pay off his debt and still not incur any taxes.

To kind of give an idea of the difference between 1M and 1B, here is an example most people can relate to. One million seconds is just over 11.5 days. One billion seconds is over 31.7 years.

And it is all 100% legal.

 

[lizkat]

And it is all 100% legal.

Yeah and done by the likes of guys who are CEOs of banks that charge ..."because they can"... what should be called usurious rates to lower middle class people with good credit ratings who end up having to carry balances from time to time. They can't deduct that interest and they don't have fancy ways of extending borrowing now against a future estate worth that much... and so they take standard deductions and pay taxes through the nose, and if they are in a service industry at the customer-facing level, they also endure high rate of audits because they might not be reporting all their tips? Our tax code is an abomination.