Trump’s Riches and the Real-Estate Tax Racket
http://prospect.org/article/trumps-riches-and-real-estate-tax-racket
One thing is certain. If Trump’s full tax returns are ever released, the country would get an up-close look at how Trump’s empire sits upon a real-estate tax racket, composed of a princely pile of tax breaks, loopholes, and deferrals that make wealthy real-estate developers even wealthier by eliminating most of their taxes. For Trump, it’s a point of pride: “I fight like hell to pay as little as possible,” he said in August 2015.
However, when it came time to pay property taxes, he claimed that the property and clubhouse was worth just $1.36 million—a 97 percent cut from his FEC disclosure figure. Right before an ABC News investigative report was set to highlight the discrepancy, Trump’s lawyers bumped up the valuation to $9 million. That’s still far short of the at least $14.3 million the city assessor estimated it at. On top of that, in 2008, Trump even got a 55 percent valuation reduction—from $38 million to $16 million.
Trump’s deal with New York City in 1980 to build the Grand Hyatt Hotel, left, required him and his partners to return a portion of the profits to the city. However, as the ABC News investigation found, when the city audited Trump in 1989, it discovered that his team had understated total profits by more than $5 million—thus bilking the city out of almost $3 million.
He’s a repeat offender. As a USA Today investigation found, Trump’s companies have been involved in more than 100 lawsuits or other battles over unpaid taxes or how much he owes.
= new reply since forum marked as read
