We Haven't Seen Trump's Taxes Yet, but It's Clear the IRS Failed America

[babylonsister]

We Haven’t Seen Trump’s Taxes Yet, but It’s Clear the IRS Failed America
DO BETTER
The IRS is required to conduct audits of the president and vice president while they are in office—but Trump apparently got a pass.
Shan Wu
Updated Dec. 22, 2022 6:21AM ET / Published Dec. 21, 2022 11:40PM ET 


The quest for Donald Trump’s taxes is finally over and whatever secrets Trump fought for years to conceal will soon be revealed for all to see. But one fact is already clear: The IRS botched its job.

snip//

Perhaps this should not have been surprising given that Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was the first Treasury Secretary to refuse to turn over tax information in response to a congressional request and when Congress sued to obtain compliance a Trump-appointed judge–Trevor McFadden–delayed ruling on the case until after Trump had left office.

But it surely must be stunning to most Americans that among the reasons cited by IRS officials for their failure to follow policy was that they were apparently intimidated by the complexities of Trump’s taxes. In an internal memo, the agency seemed to whine about the return having “about 400 flow-through returns… and since some of these are tiered… a total of 500 flow-through returns”—which meant that to “do a thorough review of these returns we would need a team much larger than the current team.”

A “flow-through” entity is one in which the income that comes into the business passes onto the owner and is commonly used to reduce taxation.

In sum, the IRS rewarded Trump’s complex business structures by throwing their hands up at the prospect of having to dig into all those hundreds of records. Excuse me, but I thought that was what IRS agents liked to do?

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-havent-seen-trumps-taxes-yet-but-its-clear-the-irs-failed-america?ref=home

[gab13by13]

1. Always it amounts to hand wringing,

If the Treasury Secretary and the IRS broke the law DOJ can hold them accountable.

Right now the IRS Office of Inspector general is vacant, WHY? Right now, the IRS Commissioner is Acting, not confirmed. WHY?

[inthewind21]

9. Problem is

It's not law. It's department policy. So there will be nothing other than a bit of public tongue lashing. And newflash, the IRS have failed the public for a very VERY long time.

[Tree Lady]

2. Trump obviously had control of IRS

And his people there. Didn't we hear he had some democrats audited?

[maxsolomon]

36. Comey and McCabe from the FBI

He had them audited.

[Meowmee]

3. He should have been in jail

For tax fraud years ago. Obviously he was paying people off for years.

[gab13by13]

28. According to Michael Cohen,

Trump can be arrested today for tax fraud, what is stopping DOJ?

Allen Weisselberg took the fall for Trump in the Trump.org trial. Prosecutors could have gone after Weisselberg harder.

[Meowmee]

41. Yes

All true. I don’t know but it’s not looking good.,

[spanone]

4. The IRS UNDER DON TRMP failed America.

[onetexan]

15. Bingo

[mchill]

5. Looks like based on reported "wages" Trump kept his POTUS salary

Wasn’t he donating it to Veterans?

[spooky3]

18. He would have to report it as income but then could deduct it

As a charitable contribution on Schedule A.

But who knows if he actually did?

[mchill]

37. It was money listed under wages

I don’t have exact amounts—read his “wages” from a summary of types of income he received. Before 2017, wages were basically none, then they popped up to about $380,000 for the next 3-4 years. That would likely be his AGI POTUS salary.

[spooky3]

40. Agree. Any bets on whether he actually donated it?

[emulatorloo]

6. No, Trump corrupted the IRS, just as he corrupted DOJ when he installed Barr and had him

lie about the Mueller report.

[Bev54]

7. Let's be clear, it was not the IRS as a whole but Steve Mnuchin and Trump's

appointee at the head. Those two need to go to prison along with Trump. All these aholes that flouted the rules, norms and especially laws need to be rounded up, none should be left out.

[inthewind21]

10. What law

Did the IRS flout regarding Trumps taxes? And not going by the 'rules" what punishment will/should that bring?

[Bev54]

13. Not for me to decide and does not limit it to just these two.

[Justice matters.]

14. The 'rules' should be codified into law, but don't count on the next House...

The Senate Finance Committee should get the ball rolling and propose legislation on that, then challenge the repuke's House to pass it.

We know they probably won't so let's hang it on their neck for the 2024 election.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. They failed to follow internal agency policies and procedures

which should trigger a Treasury Department OIG investigation -

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3010582
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3010608

I expect with the revelations the past couple days, someone in Congress may end up calling for a GAO audit as well, even with federal law requiring them to do annual audits of the IRS, their financial transactions, and adherence to following their internal processes. Their last published audit was November 2021 (the latest hasn't been published yet but am wondering in light of what happened with this "tax audit-gate" issue, whether they will need to look deeper and/or modify their previous reports).

If they are found to have done this to cover up criminal activity, well then there are statutes associated with that.

[onetexan]

16. Bingo!!

[lindysalsagal]

19. Yes. There has to be a way to trace the chain of command to that decision, and at least fire that pe

person and rescind the pension. At the very least.

[Stuart G]

8. I don't think we have seen it all, just part of it. Who knows what is coming? I know 1 thing: MORE

...I think we have only seen a small part of the whole..................but I could be wrong...

[Pepsidog]

11. Tax code too complicated and there is zero interest in making it uncomplicated.

[KPN]

17. Not just complicated, but "rigged" as a result of decades of lobbying by (x)illionaires and

corporations to benefit themselves at a cost to the middle class and poor.

[Pepsidog]

33. 100% agree.

[Tanuki]

42. Yes...the private equity industry alone spent more than $600 million in the last decade

to lobby and bribe their way into maintaining their sweet carried interest tax dodge, that screws over all other taxpayers.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/09/30/lobbying-kept-carried-interest-out-of-bidens-tax-plan-bernstein-says.html

"Fierce lobbying by the private equity industry is the reason the carried interest tax rate is not included in President Joe Biden's planned tax hikes, top White House economist Jared Bernstein told CNBC on Thursday.

Biden and congressional Democrats are hoping to pass a sprawling budget, much of which is paid for with revenue from a laundry list of tax changes, including higher rates for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
...
"This is such a glaring privileged position for a certain group of people over just about everybody else," said Sorkin. "For those that look at the tax policy as a part of a democracy, where people have to believe in it, they say, 'This makes no sense.'"
...
Indeed, last year 4,108 individual lobbyists formally registered to lobby Congress and the Executive Branch on the issue of taxes, according to the Open Secrets lobbying database. Hundreds more likely worked to influence federal tax policy on behalf of clients but did not formally register as lobbyists.

For private equity firms, keeping their tax rate at the lower capital gains level is their top priority in Washington and has been for years.

The private equity industry has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists to fight any effort to change how it is taxed. And so far, the plan appears to be working.

The industry has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to congressional campaigns, $600 million total over the past decade, according to a New York Times analysis earlier this year....(more)

[paleotn]

12. Well, they didn't fail to audit me once in the last ten years.

No worries since my taxes are simple by design, driven by my risk averse nature, but it's the principle in my mind. Guess I don't rate.

[gulliver]

20. Trump sure was lucky the IRS "failed"

Such a lucky guy!

[Stuart G]

22. i don't think it was ...."just luck." but, we will all see soon. (my opinion only)

..........(and soon is soon...no inside information, just speculation on my part)

[twodogsbarking]

23. The entire tax system should be scrapped and

a new system put in place. Who could argue that the current system works.

[Joinfortmill]

24. Hope some heads roll and indictments fall.

[Maeve]

25. Math is HARD!!

Grow up and do your job or find something else.

[patphil]

26. Wealthy people and large businesses can construct deliberately complex situations.

It becomes an expensive and time consuming task to do a proper audit. So very few in-depth audits were done for these people.
Of course Trump de-funded the IRS to the point that it was essentially impossible. He also put one of his corrupt sycophants at the head of the IRS to insure no audit of his businesses would be done.
And then he insisted he was under audit, when he wasn't.

I hope the IRS does it's job now, and the former head is held criminally liable for his failure to comply with the law. It's about time this shit was dealt with.

[LaMouffette]

27. A big reason Trump did not get audited was his IRS chief was making money off of Trump properties.

This news came out in 2020. I don't know why more wasn't made of it at the time. Surely, that IRS chief should have been called in to testify about why Trump was not audited.

Here's part of a 2020 Forbes article about it:

IRS Chief Makes More Than $100,000 Per Year Off Trump Property, Documents Show

The commissioner of the IRS—who is responsible for releasing President Trump's tax returns to Congress—owns two rental properties at the Trump International Waikiki that he profits off of while in office, according to new documents obtained by a watchdog group in Washington, raising new questions about his withholding of Trump’s tax returns as the president goes to court to keep them hidden.

Commissioner Charles Rettig’s personal financial disclosures for the past two years, analyzed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, show that the IRS commissioner earns $100,000-200,000 per year from his properties at the Trump-branded Hawaii resort, which he purchased in 2006 before the hotel officially opened.

The Trump Waikiki website notes that the hotel was not developed by the Trump Organization—the owner licenses the Trump brand name—but Hawaii News Now reported in 2016 that the now-president received 10% of all pre-sales of units at the property, and Trump has made a promotional visit to the hotel while in office.

Rettig, who failed to disclose his connection to the Trump property when first appointed, told House lawmakers in 2019 that it was ultimately his decision—under the supervision of Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin—whether or not to turn over Trump’s federal tax returns to Congress, as House Democrats have requested.

Rettig denied the request for Trump’s tax documents in May 2019, with Mnuchin telling lawmakers that their subpoena for the president’s tax returns “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”

House Democrats’ legal challenge to obtain Trump’s tax returns was sent back to a lower court by the Supreme Court, and is unlikely to be decided before the November election.

“The IRS Commissioner has a vested interest in the success of the Trump brand—and of preventing anything that could damage it,” CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] said in a post revealing the Rettig documents, speculating that it could be “toxic” for the value of Rettig’s property “if a bombshell in [Trump’s] tax returns were released.”

[link:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/09/01/irs-chief-makes-more-than-100000-per-year-off-trump-property-documents-show/?sh=600061587488|

[Hope22]

31. This!! n/t

[jaxexpat]

29. Its been years since the IRS hired bean counters.

Republicans hate bean counters.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

30. Republicans hail 2 percent cut to IRS appropriation in omnibus

The Hill, 12/20/22

Senate Republicans are pointing to a $275 million reduction to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) annual appropriations as a win in their end-of-year negotiations on the omnibus spending package.

Republican leaders are highlighting the reduction in IRS funding at a time when conservatives are calling for fellow Republican lawmakers to punt major spending decisions into next year so the incoming GOP majority in the House can block funding to hire 87,000 new IRS agents.

Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, pointed out that the $12.32 billion provided for the IRS in the omnibus is $275 million less than what Congress enacted for fiscal 2022.

-more-

* * *

The only thing the GQP will increase is the military budget. A $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill released by Senate Appropriations Committee leaders Tuesday morning calls for a 10 percent increase in fiscal year 2023 defense spending to $858 billion from fiscal 2022 figures.

Surprised? Me neither.

[Quakerfriend]

32. THIS is the real story- not that TFG never paid

taxes.

And, the IRS being under the control of the Treasury-
I would so love to see Mnuchin suffer some consequences for this.

[republianmushroom]

34. Yes it did, but they botch this, don't think so, no this was a deliberate act

botch would infer that they screwed up the audits. the act eliminated those audits.
23 months and counting

[TomCADem]

35. It Seems The GOP Defund the IRS Campaign Has Worked

Indeed, perhaps Republicans can turn this around and argue that the IRS should be abolished in its entirety.

[NullTuples]

39. It's been working for them since 2007

Not a single IRS Church investigation since then thanks to Congressional and Judicial Republicans, utilizing a number of methods including defunding.

[NullTuples]

38. Isn't this exactly why Trump replaced any agency head w/ a loyalist or an "acting" head?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

43. We have an infestation of MAGAts at every level of government.