As President Trump and House Democrats continue to fight over Trump’s tax returns, the New York Times released an article revealing some interesting information. According to the report, Trump lost $1 billion worth of income between 1985 and 1994. During those ten years, it allowed him to not pay any taxes.
This information came to light thanks to anonymous sources and IRS anonymized returns. During that decade, the IRS created a public study of sorts that allowed interested parties to see what the highest earners make and what they pay in taxes. Of course, that data was anonymous in nature, but the Times has a source who was able to confirm the information.
To many, this is a controversial technique to might prevent the IRS from releasing such studies in the future. The Times wasn’t supposed to be able to deduce the individuals reported in the study. That leads to President Trump fully denying that he is the person the story mentions. This story might not have been interesting in the past, but it seems as if we live in a new world.
Democrats Trying to Find Anything They Can
This information comes as House Democrats appear to be turning up the heat. They are doing what they can to investigate every single aspect of Trump’s business. They appear to be under the impression that he undoubtedly skirted by the rules somehow and didn’t pay his fair share of taxes.
It also happens to be taking place when there’s more of a spotlight on wealth inequality. Many progressives and socialists blame the rich for not paying enough. They want to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for several programs, like free healthcare, free college education, and so much more.
Playing the System?
One statistic from the Times story that sheds light on Trump’s business tactics was his many rounds of bankruptcy. It would appear as if he was a fairly bad businessman, constantly losing out business. He claimed a billion-dollar loss during that time, but he apparently wasn’t even a billionaire to start with.
His real money didn’t start coming in until the late 1990’s and 2000’s when he was branding himself as a reality star. According to New York reporter Josh Barro, Trump is just playing the game. He reports losses to stop himself from having to pay any taxes at all.
“The primary lesson of Trump’s massive reported losses from 1985 to 1994 is not that he was a comically bad businessman,” writes Barro, “but that he was comically undertaxed.” In fact, Trump claimed more losses than anyone else in the country at that time. In 1990 and 1991 specifically, his losses were double than every other loss claim in the United States.
Trump himself would like you to believe that this was all just standard rich-guy tax sheltering, and said as much on Twitter in mid-May. Trump himself, in a very Trump fashion, called the piece a ‘hit job’ in several tweets as the story was released.
“Real estate developers in the 1980’s & 1990’s, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases,” he wrote.
“Much was non-monetary. Sometimes considered “tax shelter…you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes….almost all real estate developers did – and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”
