The first presidential debate of the 2020 season is set to begin in a few hours, and it is useful to keep in mind who one of those candidates is and if we really want him around anymore. The New York Times reported that Donald Trump has not paid federal income taxes in 10 of the 15 years before he was elected president, and just $750 in his first year in office. The Washington Post compared this to Jimmy Carter, who in 1977 had invested enough in his peanut business to qualify for owing no federal income taxes. But according to the Post, “Carter was upset because he had a ‘strong feeling’ that wealthy people like him should pay at least some taxes. So he voluntarily paid the Treasury Department $6,000, the equivalent to 15 percent of his adjusted gross income and slightly more than the 14 percent paid by average taxpayers that year.”
This compared to Ronald Reagan paying $165,202 in his first term, George H.W. Bush paying $101,382, Bill Clinton $62,670, George W. Bush $250,221, and Barack Obama paid more than all of them combined--$1,792,414--most of it from book sales. Naturally, Trump called it “fake news” and his diehard supporters don’t care, most asserting that he just had “smart” accountants, or that he was a “businessman” who created jobs, so it doesn’t matter. Trump is no “businessman”; he has repeatedly failed as an entrepreneur selling consumer products, his entire operation is real estate, office space rental and various golf courses and resorts. He doesn’t “make” anything that people actually need--just providing spaces where rich people gather--and the Trump Organization itself is just an umbrella front for companies run by others--like the NFL is a “front” for teams owned and operated by other people.
The Times reported that Trump--whose “businesses” were the subject of numerous bankruptcies that he personally was not injured by--has used the tax code to write-off hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, and has at least a $500 million debt variously coming due by 2024, which is being regarded as a potential “security threat” if Trump is reelected. Trump no doubt owes Deutsche Bank a considerable sum, from the money it loaned Trump; it has been charged by Michael Cohen that Trump provided the bank with false income statements in regard to his organization’s financial viability to sustain debt and its ability to pay back the loans. The story also noted that Trump’s residuals from “The Apprentice” have dried-up, which he can no longer rely on to shore-up his profit-loss statements.
The Hill, quoting information from the Times story, noted that “Trump was able to avoid income taxes through a range of provisions in the tax code that pertain to pass-through entities - businesses that treat income as the personal income of their owners. Through these provisions, Trump was able to claim the immense losses experienced by some Trump Organization hotels and properties, the depreciating value of buildings he owns and expenses he claims were related to his business operations as deductions from taxes that would have been owed on income for other parts of his empire.”
It’s a wonder that Trump has actually made money from his “brand”--simply selling his name, as if that is worth anything but mud these days, or should be. Could you imagine if Trump actually had to pay for his crimes and became the first former president to spend time in a prison cell that Richard Nixon was fortunate to avoid after his tax evasion conviction, that any business owner would want his or her business tainted by putting “Trump” all over it? The Times reported that Trump’s golf courses and resorts have lost more than $300 million since 2000, yet Trump still “personally” earned more than $400 million simply by licensing his name and “brand.” Think about it: somebody pays you to slap your name on a building, but you are not personally responsible for the failure of that name to attract tenants or customers.
The Times also reported an unethical and potentially illegal act when “Ms. Trump reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, totaling $747,622, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii.” While “consulting” fees can be tax deductible, the question is whether Ivanka did any actual “consulting,” since on those hotel projects she was listed as the “project manager.” Trump reportedly wrote-off $26 million in “consulting” fees between 2010 and 2018, and the records do not state who did the “consulting.” A one-off is one thing, but if Ivanka was the recipient of all of that $26 million, and Trump used it as a tax write-off, the question is if any consulting was even actually done, give the lack of evidence that she has provided anything of import as a “senior adviser” to daddy.
It is a cruel joke for working people that Trump is one of those people who while they attack social safety net programs, are themselves the recipients of “safety net” programs from their own gross incompetence and failures. The Urban Institute’s Eugene Steuerle notes that “Most very wealthy people can easily avoid individual taxation with support from tax laws that provide them with discretion over how much tax they pay, bankruptcy laws that allow them to pass on losses to others even while they retain gains elsewhere, bank lending practices that favor the rich, and a monetary policy that for the last three decades has hugely subsidized wealthy investors.”
Regardless of what is “legal” or not, Trump and his family have kept their financial heads above water through legalized cheating and theft. Let’s remember who is another member of this “family”--Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, who served time in prison for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. The tampering involved Kushner’s attempt to intimidate his brother-in-law, William Schulder, into rescinding his witness testimony against Kushner by hiring a prostitute to lure Schulder into a hotel room while a hidden videotape machine was rolling. Charles Kushner eventually pled guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion and other crimes. But like most white-collar criminals, he got off fairly lightly, serving only 14 months at a minimum security prison.
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