2022 #1 Top Weasel: Fraud, Con Artist, Grifter, Pathological Liar - We All Know Who

 

Yep, that's him & his taxes prove it

(Worrisome is his Chinese bank account)

Trump’s taxes for the last 6 years vs. ours – oops!!!

From CNN with this headline and highlights below:

“Trump’s tax returns raise questions over his business operations, loans he gave his children, and more”

Trump said in a statement following his tax release: “The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The “Trump tax returns” once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.”

His taxes shed light on questionable tax claims: Trump’s returns also show that he made several claims that auditors may question.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which reviewed the returns, flagged that Trump claimed a large number of questionable items on his tax returns, including eyebrow-raising amounts of interest he claims to have received from loans to his children that the bipartisan committee said could indicate Trump was disguising gifts.

The JCT, which made no claims that Trump should have paid more or less in taxes in the years it reviewed, argued that an auditor should investigate the loan agreements Trump made with his children, including the interest rates.

If the interest Trump claims to have charged his children was not at market rate, for example, it could be considered a gift for tax purposes, requiring him to pay a higher tax rate on the money.

In 2017, for example, Trump claimed he received exactly $18,000 in interest on a loan he said he gave his daughter Ivanka Trump. 

He claimed $8,715 in interest from his son Donald Trump, Jr., and exactly $24,000 from his son Eric Trump.

The JCT report said: “That raises the question of whether the loans were bona fide arm’s length transactions, or whether the transfers were disguised gifts that could trigger gift tax and a disallowance of interest deductions by the related borrowers.”

Martin Sheil, former supervisory special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation unit said: “It’s unusual to have interest in round numbers – very rare. An auditor would want to see payments, loan agreements and interest rates. Total expenses equaling total income is a statistical impossibility. It just doesn’t happen.”

There are also questions about Trump’s returns listing an identical amount of company expenses and profits. For example, in 2017, Trump claimed his business DJT Aerospace LLC, which operates Trump’s personal helicopter, claimed $42,965 in profit. He also claimed the exact same amount – $42,965 – in expenses. 

In other words, every single dollar – to the dollar – that the company earned was negated by the company’s expenses, such as payroll, fuel and other items. That left the company with zero income – and nothing to tax.

The JCT in its report raised several similar questions. For example, it noted IRS auditors were investigating multiple so-called large unusual questionable items on Trump’s tax returns for which the regulator wanted Trump to provide supporting evidence to back up his claims.

Returns show he held foreign bank accounts while in office: Trump reported having foreign bank accounts between 2015 and 2020, including a bank account in China between 2015 and 2017, his tax returns show. Trump was required to report the accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The filings show that the former president maintained foreign bank accounts in countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and China.

Alan Garten Trump Organization lawyer said: “The China bank account, reported by The NY Times in 2020, was tied to Trump International Hotels Management’s business push in the country.”

The 2020 disclosure of business dealings in China came as the Trump campaign sought to portray opponent Joe Biden as a “puppet of China.”

FYI: Biden’s income tax returns and financial disclosures showed no business dealings or income from China. 

The returns also show that Trump paid more in foreign taxes than in U.S. federal income taxes in 2017, the first year of his presidency. In 2017, Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes because of large carry-forward losses that he claimed in prior years, negating virtually all of his American tax liability. 

Yet Trump paid nearly $1 million in taxes to foreign countries that year.

I note: So, “America First,” eh, Mr. Trump?

The fact that Trump paid foreign taxes isn’t in itself surprising, but it shows how Trump’s companies and businesses interests span the globe, and how those businesses are subject to local tax laws and regulations.

For example: Trump listed business income, taxes, expenses or other notable financial items in: Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada, India, Qatar, South Korea, the United Kingdom, China, the Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Grenada, Puerto Rico, Georgia, Israel, Brazil, St. Maarten, Mexico, Indonesia, Ireland, Turkey, and St. Vincent.

Committee found IRS failed to conduct mandatory audits: The committee, which is responsible for overseeing the IRS and writing tax policy, requested the returns under the authority of Section 6103 of the U.S. tax code (Cornell Law). Their report focused primarily on whether Trump’s tax returns during his time in office were properly audited under the IRS’ mandatory audit program for presidents.

The committee found that the IRS opened only one “mandatory audit during Trump’s term” – for his 2016 tax return. And that didn’t take place until the fall of 2019, after Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) sent a letter asking the IRS for Trump’s returns and tax information. The report characterizes the presidential audit program as “dormant.” 

My 2 Cents: Trump treated the country and our laws and rules and constitutional system as his personal bank account that only he managed and more likely managed it as a criminal enterprise top to bottom based on loyalty to him and not much else except all the while grifting the country and people in a lot of his low-down ways.

In 2016 and 2017 for example, Trump only paid $750.00 in Federal income taxes each of those two years. 

Meanwhile, I paid $1,253.00 in 2016, and $1,342.00 in 2917. Then he paid zero in 2020 and I paid $956.00. (Making America Great Again, um – yeah but for whom?)

How about your Federal taxes compared to Trump’s? Easy to see why he wanted to keep them out of sight from the public for a long as possible. What a despicable man.

Finally, in my long standing opinion Trump needs some serious jail time just like Al Capone did for his tax evasion shenanigans. Then on top is his mishandling of classified documents he stored at Mar-a-Lago of which many were marked Top Secret/SCI documents. We wonder who else saw or copied them? 

His taxes and the classified documents are the top two most-serious crimes and in my view they are also the easiest to try and convict him on.  We shall see.

Thanks for stopping by.