If Donald Trump really doesn't pay federal income tax...

[VanillaSunflowers]

He didn't release anything. He filed the required financial disclosure form that all presidential candidates must file. He had no choice in doing this, if he wanted to run.

You're going to equivocate over a word, released? He released his financials. Period.
Donald Trump's 92-page financial disclosure released

 

[civilwarbuff]

Republican leaders have said he should release his tax returns.

And he should; unless he has done something illegal he is hurting himself more by not releasing them......but if he has done something illegal I think the IRS would have taken action by now.....

 

[VanillaSunflowers]

And he should; unless he has done something illegal he is hurting himself more by not releasing them......but if he has done something illegal I think the IRS would have taken action by now.....

Of course they would. Big fish! If he did something illegal in his returns the audits, which are what those are for, would find that and he'd be in the news. Especially now.

It's a distraction. That's why I admire his counter to Hillary when she attacked the tax returns issue again. He'll release his tax returns when she releases the 33,000 emails she destroyed. It's a beautiful thing that her base doesn't get I guess. Everything he's done in his tax returns is legal. Destroying 33,000 emails that were part of a Federal investigation isn't.

 

[Hank77]

Link for Trump does not pay Freedom Girls.

Link for evidence that Trump has, at least in his tax returns that we've now seen, did not pay income tax; and which could have kept him from needing to pay taxes for 18 years.

That second link is quite the eye opener, especially the comments made by Trump's old accountant.

Mr. Mitnick said he clearly grasped the critical role taxes would play in helping him build wealth. “He knew we could use the tax code to protect him,” Mr. Mitnick said.

According to Mr. Mitnick, Mr. Trump’s use of net operating losses was no different from that of his other wealthy clients. “This may have had a couple extra digits compared to someone else’s operation, but they all benefited in the same way,” he said, pointing to the $916 million loss on Mr. Trump’s tax returns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html?_r=0

This is just tax code that benefits real estate owners, such as rental units, etc.
There are many, many rules that benefit and protect other industries from paying taxes.

 

[Hank77]

And their under audit. He's no obligation to release tax returns for those years when he was a private citizen. His financials are available as he's released those.
Here's a little something Hillary hopes people don't remember I'm sure. It puts her attack on his taxes into perspective. And again she doesn't have a lot of respect for her base or she'd realize they remember this.

Politics

The Shared Secret Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Don’t Want You to Know
Zach Cartwright | April 25, 2016


A new investigation by The Guardian revealed that both Hillary and Bill Clinton registered corporations in Delaware — the former First Lady registered ZFS Holdings, LLC in 2013, just eight days after the end of her tenure as Secretary of State, while her husband registered WJC, LLC to handle his speaking fees. Both companies are registered at 1209 N. Orange Street in Wilmington. The Guardian reports that Mrs. Clinton’s $16 million in speaking fees were sent through ZFS Holdings, LLC in 2014.

Donald Trump, in the meantime, uses the same address for Trump International Management Corporation. Additionally, he has another registered company under the name 40 Wall Street Corporation, and the entity used for the Trump Carousel in Central Park, New York, is also registered at the Corporation Trust Company. The Republican front-runner has a total of 378 corporations registered throughout the tax-friendly state.)More(

Clinton's companies should not have been a secret to anyone. They released their tax return and these companies and their profits are clearly shown on the return.

Trump's is a question mark.

 

[civilwarbuff]

If you want to express outrage, call your congressman instead of whining and crying about how the wealthy are following the tax laws.........

 

[Hank77]

If you want to express outrage, call your congressman.....

Who expressing 'outrage'? I'm not much of an extremist either way. But I do believe the tax codes need to be changed. Frankly I''m for a flat-tax on ALL personal income and removing any rules that allow business to take deductions for assets that are not strictly connected to their industry. Such as a construction company cannot buy a fishing boat, put it in the company name, and claim that it is for employee use or taking clients fishing.
If one is not in a business that is closely related to fishing, boating, selling boats, fishing outfitter, etc., then the company does not get to buy a boat or yacht and use it as a tax deduction in anyway. That goes for condos at ski resorts or beach front properties, airplanes and leer jets, etc.

 

[civilwarbuff]

Who expressing 'outrage'? I'm not much of an extremist either way. But I do believe the tax codes need to be changes. Frankly I''m for a flat-tax on ALL personal income and removing any rules that allow business to take deductions for assets that are not strictly connected to their industry. Such as a construction company cannot buy a fishing boat, put it in the company name, and claim that it is for employee use or taking clients fishing.
If one is not in a business that is closely related to fishing, boating, selling boats, fishing outfitter, etc., then the company does not get to buy a boat or yacht and use it as a tax deduction in anyway. That goes for condos at ski resorts or beach front properties, airplanes and leer jets, etc.

That was not directed at you....bad post. Just tired of people blaming Trump for what so many of the wealthy do also. If people want to express outrage about it they should call their congressman. Sorry for the confusion. Edited the post.....

 

[Hank77]

That was not directed at you....bad post. Just tired of people blaming Trump for what so many of the wealthy do also. If people want to express outrage about it they should call their congressman. Sorry for the confusion. Edited the post.....

No problem, thanks for the clarification.
I think that there are many things that most of us could agree on, but when we start taking political sides we just end up fighting. I see that the same thing goes on in the Congress. There are a few powerful representatives on each side and they rule their individual roosts. Those who try to oppose or reason with them are told to shut up and tow the line and if they don't the party will not support them when it is time for reelection. Just look what went on the Sanders, and I am not so gullible as to think that the Reps. don't play the same power games.

 

[wing2000]

So, no indication that Trump even know anything about this, correct? No written contract (height of stupidity), no mention about how this verbal agreement was arrived at (phone/email/face), no follow-up verification by email.......This guy seems absolutely incompetent from the word go. I will wait to hear the other side even though the usual suspects won't.


This is old news and disussed early in thread.

Old news....the report is less than 24 hours old...

What's a matter...you don't want face up to the fact that Trump declared a loss of nearly 1 BILLION dollars in 1995. Tell us again what a great business man he is.

 

[civilwarbuff]

Old news....the report is less than 24 hours old...

What's a matter...you don't want face up to the fact that Trump declared a loss of nearly 1 BILLION dollars in the early 90's. Tell us again what a great business man he is.

We were talking about that 2 days ago.......around here that is old.......LOL

 

[Ana the Ist]

Wow...900,000,000+$ lost in 1995...I had always figured that he lied about being a great businessman, but I had no idea his failures were so enormous. One can only speculate how big his losses were on the other times he declared bankruptcy.

So what are his supporters claiming as a reason to vote for him now? Everyone that I ever spoke with who supported him believed something along the lines of "he's a great businessman...he'll fix the economy!" Do his supporters even have a reason to vote for him now?

 

[civilwarbuff]

Wow...900,000,000+$ lost in 1995...I had always figured that he lied about being a great businessman, but I had no idea his failures were so enormous. One can only speculate how big his losses were on the other times he declared bankruptcy.

So what are his supporters claiming as a reason to vote for him now? Everyone that I ever spoke with who supported him believed something along the lines of "he's a great businessman...he'll fix the economy!" Do his supporters even have a reason to vote for him now?

Was it personal or business bankruptcy that was declared?

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Was it personal or business bankruptcy that was declared?

I don't believe he's ever declared personal bankruptcy, and the business bankruptcies were all Chapter 11, none were Chapter 7.

 

[High Fidelity]

Wow...900,000,000+$ lost in 1995...I had always figured that he lied about being a great businessman, but I had no idea his failures were so enormous. One can only speculate how big his losses were on the other times he declared bankruptcy.

So what are his supporters claiming as a reason to vote for him now? Everyone that I ever spoke with who supported him believed something along the lines of "he's a great businessman...he'll fix the economy!" Do his supporters even have a reason to vote for him now?

Pretty sure his net worth is down $800m in the past year, too.

 

[civilwarbuff]

Pretty sure his net worth is down $800m in the past year, too.

Yeah?....you got inside info?

 

[Ana the Ist]

Was it personal or business bankruptcy that was declared?

Does that make a difference to you in some way?

 

[civilwarbuff]

No, just asking....do you know?

 

[Ana the Ist]

No, just asking....do you know?

I don't know for sure, but I was under the impression it was a business bankruptcy (every time). There aren't too many billionaires out there as far as personal income goes...

 

[civilwarbuff]

I don't know for sure, but I was under the impression it was a business bankruptcy (every time). There aren't too many billionaires out there as far as personal income goes...

I believe you are correct about it being business bankruptcy; IIRC personal bankruptcy can only be every 7 years but obviously if you have many businesses any or all could go that route. The articles don't seem to specify which it is......