Wait! What? Trump Only Makes $500k a Year? |TPM

[BootinUp]

Some clever sleuthing by Crain's New York Business reveals that Mr Trump, as members of the entourage call him, qualified for a tax break that requires your income be less than $500,000 a year. Yes, if you make more than half a million dollars a year, you can't qualify. But Trump did qualify.

So here's the story. New York state has something called the Star program, the New York State School Tax Relief Program. For a married homeowner to qualify your income needs to be less than $500,000 a year. The benefit itself is pretty measly for a real high roller - just a $302 break on Trump's penthouse apartment in Trump Tower.

How did Crain's find this out if Trump hasn't released his taxes?

Check out the Crain's piece to get the full details. But the gist is that it shows up on property tax records with New York City. (If it were most publications I'd figure they didn't understand something about the tax code. But this is one of New York's premier business and real estate news publications. I doubt it's a dumb error on their part.)

TPM Article ...

[metroins]

1. Likely took a loss that year?

Casino loss or something?

[BootinUp]

2. Article said he took a special NYC tax credit 3 years running...

[metroins]

3. Oof.

I guess I should've read more into the article.

I personally think Trump is a tax cheat, but I understand that's how the game is played at that level. I wish we would work on our tax code imbalances.

[Yupster]

32. Real estate has the best deductions

I bet he pays very little in income tax.

[babylonsister]

4. Offshore for sure.

He's one of them.

[LiberalArkie]

5. Probably easy to cheat when you don't get a W2 or a 1099

[world wide wally]

6. So, will the MSM or Dems ever even bring this up?

[starroute]

7. There's speculation Trump is not nearly as rich as he claims

I don't have a link, but it was in an article on reasons why he might be refusing to release his tax returns. Trump has run on the idea that he's an ultra-successful businessman and fabulously wealthy, and anything that clouds that image is toxic to him.

[Capt13]

31. Here's one

http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/donald-trump-tax-returns-income/

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Panama papers

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Spiro Agnew had to resign for cheating on his taxes....

But that was before the right-wing considered it a virtue.

[1939]

11. A little more than that

He wasn't cheating on his taxes so much as he wasn't reporting income received as bribes.

While a conviction is easier on tax evasions, the real crime was corruption in Baltimore County that he was a part of.

It is easier for prosecutors to nail a crook on taxes because it is easier to prove (innocent till proven guilty on the basis that the government is entitled to all your money and the burden of proof is on you to say why they shouldn't take it all).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. "It is easier for prosecutors to nail a crook on taxes because it is easier to prove"

Hence: Trump has a problem here.

[KentuckyWoman]

10. All the stuff is owned by Trump Inc. not Donald Trump

And his salary is structured so the vast majority will never be counted as income or taxed. If that man pays ANY federal income taxes he should fire his accountant. Actually, if the taxpayers are not sending Trump a check every year his accountant should be fired.

I remember when it came out Romney deliberately skipped some legal tax breaks so he could claim he paid at least 13%. In a normal year he should be paying NO federal income taxes.

At this level they don't have to cheat. The laws are already designed to give them a free ride. The millions they throw at Congress and Senate is a small investment that pays off bigtime.

That's the problem.

[Angel Martin]

13. This !

75K pages of IRS tax code.

That's not 75,000 pages of tax breaks to help the little guy.

I just wonder about the theory that Trump is not that rich. His private jet is a 757 he bought from Paul Allen for $100 mil. Then he spent millions more to "Trump it up". The fuel costs alone for that thing are several thousand dollars an hour.

[Betty88]

19. My guess is that it belongs to the company

not to Trump himself.

[Angel Martin]

20. I sure it does belong to the company

but Trump has the exclusive use of it, he tells them where to fly

[KentuckyWoman]

34. Donald Trump did not pay one dime on the plane or on the refurbishment

The business did........ not the man. Legally they are not the same. The business owns the plane - not Donald.
He's a poor little rich man.

[Angel Martin]

35. that's the joke of it

instead of an income tax, if we had a national sales tax that also covered art, collectibles, real estate, used airplanes etc., the guy making $500K per year would pay less, but $500 million per year would actually pay more (or their "company" would).

[tclambert]

12. No wonder he's chickening out of releasing his tax return.

But Donald, you always claim to be really, really rich. If you made less than 500K, how can that be? Are you nothing but a fraud? Instead of the Trump name standing for wealth and luxury, maybe it should become a symbol of empty boasting.

[Socal31]

14. K - 1ing or W2ing yourself any more than that is bad business.

AGI tells almost nothing unfortunately.

[jmowreader]

16. You pay taxes on income, not wealth

I'd have to see the way he structures his income, but strangely enough this may actually be legitimate.

The Trump Organization is a Subchapter C corporation. (It HAS to be. It's too damn big to be anything else.) Under Subchapter C, the CEO is considered an employee of the firm. He could very well be pulling only $350K out of the firm for walking-around money.

[Zynx]

21. It's actually an LLC.

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=344985

[jmowreader]

24. Then contrary to Trump's last statement, he really is stupid

Who would do that?

[LiberalArkie]

17. Steve Jobs was only paid $1 a year.

[secondwind]

18. Melania has a bracelet worth that much.

[NoMoreRepugs]

22. if the 500k number is true and his 10billion net worth is true

T-RUMP is one of the worst investors EVER

that's a whopping .005% by my math . thats 5/1,000ths of 1% as a return

[BootinUp]

23. There is a lot of speculation

that his real net worth could be significantly less than the 10B number. Do I believe he could be a terrible investor? Yep.

[Bucky]

25. This is exactly why he won't release his income taxes. He's always lied about his wealth.

Con man conned the Cons.

[Warpy]

26. Chances are he's underreporting his income

to chisel the tax break and knows if he publishes his returns, he'll be hit with a big bill for back taxes and maybe even some criminal charges. A notorious fat cat chiseling (relative) nickels and dimes in tax breaks? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

You know his income is higher than that just from royalties on his ghost written books and leasing his name.

[MrMickeysMom]

27. I am told by a friend who may understand those who make their money in real estate...

(better than I do, anyway)... that because of the severity of risk associated with that kind of market, there are huge tax corrections in the form of tax breaks for these brave folk.

Yeah, I don't like it either.

[madville]

28. Makes sense

He would be stupid to pull $100,000,000 personal income and pay half of it back in taxes.

[LittleGirl]

29. His supporters won't care

just like they don't care that his is a racist lying piece of shit.

[IronLionZion]

30. Dude is a con man

he builds up this false image of success and usually loses big on many of his buildings and screws his investors the most. See how he has leveraged bankruptcy law to his advantage in the past.

It's his brand, not anything tangible. He is NOT a successful businessman or builder.

[former9thward]

33. Trump makes $160 million a year.

He has filed his financial reports with the Federal Election Commission and the Wall Street Journal analyzed them. Much more credible that the stuff in the OP.

Meanwhile, the money coming from Mr. Trump’s income-producing businesses has increased. In his July form, he listed 170 different assets in the section of the form labeled “employment assets and income” with a minimum revenue of $419.6 million.

This year, he listed 152 assets, with minimum revenue increasing to $615 million. Part of this came from his golf-course business, which saw $306 million in revenue, up from $192.5 million reported in his July filing.

Also, he received royalty payments of $11.3 million from 29 sources, up from $9.4 million from 24 sources. Part of this came from his deal with the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, which produced $1 million to $5 million in royalties, according to the latest form, up from the less than $201 reported in July.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/disclosure-form-details-donald-trumps-income-sources-1463614927