Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father

[Bitek]

From Robert, Trump's brother:
“Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.”

So everyone should drop this nonsense for the sake of the dead - no shame for the wealthy

Yeah... That's not going to happen.

I love how time absolves all guilt and misdeeds with these guys.

 

[fskimospy]

Yeah. This sounds like the typical playbook used to preserve white collar generational wealth, and what most people from NY already new about Trump and many other “elites”.

I definitely agree that white collar crime is woefully under-enforced in this country. The Manafort trial was great evidence of that.

Let’s not lose sight of the most important thing here, by far though. We have what appears to be documented evidence of the president engaging in significant criminal activity. Like, a lot of crime.

People might say it’s only come out because he’s the president and that’s probably true. You know what though? The Bushes were enormously wealthy and yet they weren’t up to their ears in fraud.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I will say that the US has made some progress on this type of stuff with FATCA that requires banks in other countries to report to the US.

Regardless, I find myself asking the question as to why Democrats under Obama didn't seem to care to push for an entire tax reform? Probably because this is an elite issue... a bipartisan elite issue.

We honestly need to reform taxes to the point where there circumvention and hiding of money is literally impossible.

 

[Starbuck1975]

I definitely agree that white collar crime is woefully under-enforced in this country. The Manafort trial was great evidence of that.

Let’s not lose sight of the most important thing here, by far though. We have what appears to be documented evidence of the president engaging in significant criminal activity. Like, a lot of crime.

People might say it’s only come out because he’s the president and that’s probably true. You know what though? The Bushes were enormously wealthy and yet they weren’t up to their ears in fraud.

Trump is a criminal. Of that there is no doubt. I also happen to think that people like him exist because we’ve turned a blind eye for so long. I think we would all be disappointed to see who gets ensnared if we widen the net even just a little bit.

 

[fskimospy]

I will say that the US has made some progress on this type of stuff with FATCA that requires banks in other countries to report to the US.

Regardless, I find myself asking the question as to why Democrats under Obama didn't seem to care to push for this type of serious issue in tax reform? Probably because this is an elite issue... a bipartisan elite issue.

It seems like every problem that exists in this country is met with ‘why didn’t Obama fix this?’ He did a ton considering he had two years to pass his priorities. After that Republicans stated, loudly and repeatedly, that they had no interest in working with him on anything.

The president is a criminal. Let’s deal with that.

 

[Commodus]

Yeah. This sounds like the typical playbook used to preserve white collar generational wealth, and what most people from NY already new about Trump and many other “elites”.

Yes and no. Wealthy people regularly use loopholes and other tricks to avoid paying tax. The difference is that most of them are using legal methods; Trump looks like he used those and straight-up tax fraud.

Now, many people did suspect Trump was a fraudster... this just confirms it.

 

[fskimospy]

Trump is a criminal. Of that there is no doubt. I also happen to think that people like him exist because we’ve turned a blind eye for so long. I think we would all be disappointed to see who gets ensnared if we widen the net even just a little bit.

I sincerely doubt I would be disappointed, haha. The only modern politician I have any meaningful amount of personal affinity for is Obama, simply because he is probably the smartest and most disciplined public figure I have ever seen.

I would be sad he he were ensnared in white collar crime but I doubt he would be as his administration was remarkably corruption free and, probably more importantly, I suspect he hasn’t been wealthy enough for long enough to get into that much shit.

 

[Brainonska511]

We honestly need to reform taxes to the point where there circumvention and hiding of money is literally impossible.

Start by funding the IRS - underfunding leads to lower numbers of audits and under-collection of taxes.

 

[Commodus]

I will say that the US has made some progress on this type of stuff with FATCA that requires banks in other countries to report to the US.

Regardless, I find myself asking the question as to why Democrats under Obama didn't seem to care to push for an entire tax reform? Probably because this is an elite issue... a bipartisan elite issue.

We honestly need to reform taxes to the point where there circumvention and hiding of money is literally impossible.

I do think the Democrats should have pushed for significant tax reform in that golden period where they had both Congress and the Presidency... unfortunately, when the Republicans got control of Congress that pretty much ruled out any ethics-oriented tax reforms.

 

[fskimospy]

Yes and no. Wealthy people regularly use loopholes and other tricks to avoid paying tax. The difference is that most of them are using legal methods; Trump looks like he used those and straight-up tax fraud.

Now, many people did suspect Trump was a fraudster... this just confirms it.

Yes, it looks like they set up a company for the express purpose of inflating the purchase price of things they already bought and then selling them back to themselves, effectively laundering Trump’s inheritance. That’s straight out tax fraud.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Start by funding the IRS - underfunding leads to lower numbers of audits and under-collection of taxes.

I have no problems with that - but more money for audits isn't an answer to the overall problem of not being able to circumvent taxes.

 

[Genx87]

Could this possibly be THE THING that brings Trump down? I kinda doubt it given the amount of time that has passed and surely the NY authorities had a idea what was going on. I know very little about tax law, statute of limitations, etc.

Worked for Capone

 

[fskimospy]

I have no problems with that - but more money for audits isn't an answer to the overall problem of not being able to circumvent taxes.

I assume you mean being able to circumvent taxes. If so, more IRS agents is a pretty great answer.

Look at Paul Manafort. He was engaged in tax fraud left and right and he wasn’t particularly sneaky about it. Mueller didn’t bust him because he was some mastermind, they just actually put resources into it. I bet you there are thousands and thousands of Manaforts out there.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

That's my understanding. Wasn't there a case a few years back where the IRS went back to the fifty's and found some poor schmuck committed fraud?

There are two distinctly different aspects in NY and likely elsewhere as far as taxes go. First is the difference between civil and criminal acts. In Trump's case we're talking about the latter. What Trump did that we're discussing is long past criminal consequences for imprisonment, however, there is no statute of limitations that I know of where he is immune from asset forfeiture. He would be on the hook for what he should have paid plus any penalties assessed. Usually, this is pennies on the dollar in real life, but that's between the state and lawyers. In this case, I don't think there will be much forgiveness simply because of who is involved.

Trump owns the Federal government to a large degree so the IRS isn't likely to do anything but stick fingers in its ears and go with "LALALALA". But much of Trump's business is done through NY entities and he was a resident of NY at the time of these allegations.

Pretty much he needs to exit the back door and flee to another nation with no legal agreements with the US the moment he leaves office.

 

[Homerboy]

That's the beauty of America: Anybody can become president. All it takes is a small loan of 400 million dollars, some help from Russia and one retarded FBI director.

That's the "pulling yourself up from the bootstraps" mentality!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I assume you mean being able to circumvent taxes. If so, more IRS agents is a pretty great answer.

Look at Paul Manafort. He was engaged in tax fraud left and right and he wasn’t particularly sneaky about it. Mueller didn’t bust him because he was some mastermind, they just actually put resources into it. I bet you there are thousands and thousands of Manaforts out there.

I don't disagree and am overall fine with increasing the budget for the IRS - especially if it results in much needed tax revenue then it obviously pays for itself.

My problem is the government concept of being reactive instead of proactive. One needs to stay ahead of tax evaders if you want to catch them instead of depending on audits after the fact. Having systems in place that make it incredibly hard to perform the evasion in the first place seems like a much better idea.

First and foremost, we should have a much more streamlined process for whistleblowers. Evading taxes always requires multiple parties unless you're just stuffing cash in a mattress (unlikely) so making it easy for banks or individuals to blow the whistle is a common sense first step.

 

[HomerJS]

I will say that the US has made some progress on this type of stuff with FATCA that requires banks in other countries to report to the US.

Regardless, I find myself asking the question as to why Democrats under Obama didn't seem to care to push for an entire tax reform? Probably because this is an elite issue... a bipartisan elite issue.

We honestly need to reform taxes to the point where there circumvention and hiding of money is literally impossible.

Guess you missed that meeting Mitch had BEFORE Obama took office and said he will block everything he proposes.

 

[HomerJS]

Hey all you morons that voted for Trump, not only did his family rip off the government for years he passed a tax cut to benefit.........wait for it.......

The same bunch of rich people.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The president is a criminal. Let’s deal with that.

In this specific case, there is no criminally prosecutable act but this type of behavior is a chronic act of self-entitlement which is all too common. If this can be demonstrated then we have another impeachable offense to add to the "Scroll of Trump" which can be laid before the House. Donny isn't likely to have reformed though and more recent financial and tax records might expose him to criminal consequences, and some of that done in NY.

The show is just getting started.

 

[kage69]

Pretty much he needs to exit the back door and flee to another nation with no legal agreements with the US the moment he leaves office.

Yep. Dubai is suddenly going to be the location of a new Trump venture, needing his personal attention to develop.

More opulent and far warmer than Russia.

 

[fskimospy]

I don't disagree and am overall fine with increasing the budget for the IRS - especially if it results in much needed tax revenue then it obviously pays for itself.

My problem is the government concept of being reactive instead of proactive. One needs to stay ahead of tax evaders if you want to catch them instead of depending on audits after the fact. Having systems in place that make it incredibly hard to perform the evasion in the first place seems like a much better idea.

First and foremost, we should have a much more streamlined process for whistleblowers. Evading taxes always requires multiple parties unless you're just stuffing cash in a mattress (unlikely) so making it easy for banks or individuals to blow the whistle is a common sense first step.

Sure, no argument here. I view those two things as complimentary.

I remember reading a while back that increasing criminal sentence length didn’t do that much to deter criminal behavior. What was really effective was increasing someone’s estimated probability of being caught at all, regardless of sentence. Better systems up front sounds good (although I don’t know anything about how that all works) and more agents to clean up when they fail.

 

[Commodus]

You know, it's probably obvious to a lot of people, but I realized: Trump's never-stop-campaigning strategy isn't useful to him just because it helps him stick to what he knows (selling, not running a country)... it's because he needs that second term to stay out of prison. The presidency both raised its own criminal issues and drew attention to crimes that previously slid under the radar.

Even if people don't dare to charge him while he's in office, the moment he's out of office.. he's facing charges. And these are the sort of charges whose sentence could have him die in prison. I won't be surprised if he becomes the first former US president to be declared a fugitive.

 

[Genx87]

You know, it's probably obvious to a lot of people, but I realized: Trump's never-stop-campaigning strategy isn't useful to him just because it helps him stick to what he knows (selling, not running a country)... it's because he needs that second term to stay out of prison. The presidency both raised its own criminal issues and drew attention to crimes that previously slid under the radar.

Even if people don't dare to charge him while he's in office, the moment he's out of office.. he's facing charges. And these are the sort of charges whose sentence could have him die in prison. I won't be surprised if he becomes the first former US president to be declared a fugitive.

Meh if there is truly a chance he is going to prison. I suspect the weasel will resign and have Pence pardon him.

 

[fskimospy]

Apparently he is now ranting about how the NYT used the concept of 'time value of money' in its piece. First, that has no relevance to the fraud described and second, how the fuck can a supposedly successful businessman not understand the time value of money? Are you better off financially if your customers pay you today or five years from now?

Some snarky internet people raised the point that the fact that he doesn't understand this basic concept could explain his many business failures, haha.

 

[SlowSpyder]

The NY Times put a hit piece out on Trump? LOL