A Question About Trump's Taxes......

[global1]

I hear that Mueller and his team will be looking into Trump's financial dealings. I also hear that Trump didn't release his taxes because he has something to hide. Why wouldn't the IRS uncover any dirty dealings of Trump as they review everyone's April 15th tax form submissions? Trump's excuse throughout the whole primaries and the run-up to the election is that his taxes were under audit.

Wouldn't the IRS find discrepancies in his submission? How would Mueller and his team be looking at Trump's submissions differently than the IRS?

[PoliticAverse]

1. I think lots of people have unrealistic views as to what the tax returns would show...

Most of the real information would be in the financial records behind the LLCs and other shell companies
that his tax returns would only show the income from. Mueller could subpoena those records.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. My understanding from our Accountant was this.

Your Tax info is yours and not the Public's. If you want to publish it,so be it.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Of course, Trump could have released his returns anytime if he actually wanted to. n/t

[Wellstone ruled]

4. And you just know his Returns are most likely 13 hundred pages or more.

Just the Real Estate Portion would be several hundred per LLC. What a scam Real Estate can be for Tax Purposes.

[PoliticAverse]

8. I see his Caribbean house for sale is behind two shell companies apparently...

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lists-st-martin-estate-for-28-million-2017-5

[malaise]

11. I also saw that he hides behind a herd of goats at the NJ golf club

for tax reasons. Is this the drip, drip beginning to flow.

[global1]

5. I'm Not Asking Why Trump Hasn't Released His Taxes - I'm Asking Why Wouldn't The IRS......

uncover - for instance - money laundering schemes?

Does the IRS just check that the numbers add up - or do they look for potential criminal activity when they review/audit a person's tax form submission?

[malaise]

10. They may have

How would we know?

[Wellstone ruled]

12. IRS will asign a Investagator to the case.

Understand it would then move to a Federal Court for action. I do know that is the case for Tax Liens on any real or personal property. My neighbor had to satisfy a income Tax Lien filed on property due to Her Husband not paying Taxes owed some years ago. Most of the House Sale Receipts were eaten up with Taxes and Penalties owed. She had zero clue this was hanging out there. She met and married the Guy several years ago after his spouse passed. And he too passed away a couple of years ago.

[KentuckyWoman]

6. If ferret head paid any taxes

he should fire his accountant.

At his level there are enough tax laws in his favor for taxpayers to be sending him checks.

Not on personal taxes but overall, with all the various legal entities he owns, he should be getting back more than he put in. It isn't right but it's legal.

And if he cheated or cooked the books then it's just pure greed to make even MORE off the taxpayers.

[Phoenix61]

7. There's a reason real estate transactions

are a preferred way to launder money. Who's to say how much a property is worth? As long as he reported any income, I wouldn't think the IRS would dig that deep.

[PoliticAverse]

9. Indeed. If you want to pay someone off just pay them $100,000 more than some property they own...

is worth. Who is to say you paid too much?

[unblock]

13. I think the IRS is actually fairly limited in terms of what it can do against complex tax evasion

They're good at questioning deductions and expenses that you tell them about. So some of donnie's misuse of non-profit funds they might catch, though they'd probably just revise his taxes and make him pay interest and penalty rather than prosecute him for that.

But if Donnie never told them about income, that's harder for the IRS to catch unless it's something the other party would have notified the IRS of. It's hard for you and me to evade tax on salary and wages because our employers tell the IRS.

But if the income is coming from overseas, for example, the foreign source might not tell the IRS, making it easier to evade.

There are many other ways to evade taxes. Mueller or say the New York attorney general may have other evidence the IRS doesn't. They may have full financial statements from all his shell companies, testimony from business partners, lenders, etc., that may point to evasion the IRS couldn't detect.

A really simple example is barter income. I paint your house in exchange for you building me a new porch. Even though no money was exchanged, we're both supposed to pay taxes on our "imputed" income.

But how is the IRS to know about this arrangement? In practice they often don't. But mueller might be able to determine that such an arrangement exists through his more extensive and thorough (hopefully) investigation and subpoena powers. A variant here is trading something at a price that isn't fair market in order to hide some other payment. E.g., I paint your house, and in exchange I buy your car from you at deep discount. I evade income tax on my labor and sales tax on the car this way.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. Well, it's not just about finding discrepancies

If his tax returns were made public, it would exposes all the losses he's had with his businesses over the years so he's not the amazing businessman he claims to be. It would also show all the taxes he's avoided by carrying those losses over year after year.