dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Whoop-de-do. Trump claimed every deduction and used every loophole that our crazy tax laws allowed. Are you saying that you do any different?

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

When and where did you obtain this analysis?

Just curious.

mwalsh Loc: Houston

Or, trump has been losing money for years and is not as rich and successful as the image he tries to project...

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

He followed the law as written by Congress.

smf85 Loc: Freeport, IL

Which is a complete and absolute mess.

gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

How can Trump claim to be an extremely successful businessman making millions of dollars and also claim that he loses so much money that he doesn't have to pay taxes? No reasonable person would accept this b.s.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I guess you have never made much money or have been on the dole.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Another way, besides losing money, is that every dollar poured back into the company and not shelled out in dividends is deductible, which is why Amazon doesn't pay any taxes. However, whenever their shareholders sell stock with a capital gain, THEY will be taxed.

lenben Loc: Seattle

The bigger problem here is not what deductions DJT took but what income he hid. He has made 100s of millions from his campaign contributions which because it does not come with a 1099 he simply ignores that tax aspect of that and infact this is money allegedly donated for his political ambitions but remember he is an accomplished grifter and con man so he has fooled millions into sending him cash allegedly for political purposes but which in fact is for him unreported income. So I say to you suckers-keep sending the cash to him; he won't thank you but he will enjoy hiding that income from the tax man.

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

Take a closer look at trump's taxes.

You'll notice that trump "loaned" money to his kids.

Also you'll notice that the deductions/ losses which trump allegedly claimed were the exact same amounts as the alleged income in those years.

Supposedly there's no documentrd back-up for those deductions.

If you or I did that, we'd be fined for those practices

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

You hit the nail on the head!

As much as trump projects that he's wealthy, his alleged empire is a house of cards which is about to come tumbling down under a deep forensic audit!

The question is whether it'll be the Senate or the IRS which brings trump down first?

I've got the popcorn ready for his next meltdown.

It seems that trump's melting down daily over some new detail from his criminal past being exposed.

Just because trump hasn't been charged yet, doesn't make him any less of a criminal.

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

If memory serves me correctly, the DOJ is already looking into the trump PAC or Super PAC, and following the money.

Just another problem added to the long list of trump problems and legal issues, tax evasion!

What was it that took down Al Capone?

Taxes!

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

These are income tax returns. Income tax is paid on taxable events, not on increases in equity. For instance, hypothetically, let's say you purchase an income property for $1, and it generates $1000 in income a year. Now let's say that the maintenance, administration, and tax costs on that property adds up to $1000/Y. Let's also assume that that income and cost stays the same for 10 years, but that the property is now worth $1,000,001, essentially increasing your equity (wealth on paper) by $1M.

Thing is, even though you're now $1M wealthier, you haven't needed to pay a dime of income tax on that gain in wealth. Now the beautiful part about this is that you can take a secured loan out against that equity and repeat that whole cycle again and again, thus multiplying your gain in wealth many times over, and even write off the added interest costs against any income from each of those properties. Theoretically speaking, let say 20 years later, all of these income properties you purchased are now worth $100,000,001, as long as you were able to offset any income generated from them with ownership costs, you wouldn't have paid a single penny in income tax on that $999,999,999 increase in wealth. Why? Because income tax isn't due until a taxable event, which would be the sale of the property.

This is of course a very simplified example, but essentially, it is the method most successful real estate investors use to get extremely wealthy. Keep in mind, the vast majority of Trump's wealth comes from real estate.

FrumCA

He had some aggressive accountants that's for sure.