Can some smart DU accountants re-engineer his income based on the $916m loss?

[Paula Sims]

I know nothing about taxes which is why I overpay someone to do it. That said, I'm sure we have some enterprising accountants here that can figure out the following:

In order for Donnie to not have to pay anything in Federal Income taxes, he would have had to have made $XXX or less each year.


With that, we can interpolate his current income (assuming all other things remain constant, which we know they don't).


Is that do-able? Logical?

[duncang]

1. Not a accountant or tax person

But I think it would almost be impossible. He can also have other deductions through out the years. So I think he could make more but still not pay taxes.

[Trust Buster]

2. He would have to earn $50 million in a given year to exceed his deduction for the $916 million

loss. The NYT cannot find a year where Trump cane close to earning an excess of $50 million in a given year. I think how he valued that $916 million loss will turn out to be the real story.

[Yonnie3]

3. well ...

I've forgotten most of what I learned in my taxation classes, only remembering what applied to me, so my response is not to be taken as gospel.

To be brief no. I've read articles that said that the $916 million loss could help him avoid taxes for up to 20 years. If his earnings were equal over 20 years, that would be 46 million per year.

Also, he can make large gains in his net worth and pay no taxes until he sells an asset that has increased in value. He can have enormous cash income to his LLCs and if he can spend it on expenses (helicopter, jet plane, gold plated offices, entertaining clients, etc.) then there is no taxable income passed through the LLC to him.

I hope I haven't muddied the water too much.

[Vinca]

4. Would some smart DU accountant explain business vs. personal tax filings?

If Trump's loss was $900+ million, wouldn't that have been taken as a business loss on a business tax reporting? Wouldn't there be a separate personal filing? It's interesting to know he's such a lousy businessman he lost nearly a billion dollars in one year, but the personal tax form would be informative, too.

[Yonnie3]

5. I am not a smart accountant.

I've read that most of t'Rumps businesses are LLCs. LLCs do not file tax returns. They pass through earnings and losses to the owners while protecting them from liabilies.

There is more information here:

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/llc-basics-30163.html

[Vinca]

6. It's amazing someone is allowed to do that with such a vast empire of businesses (good and bad).

I wonder if he's protected from all the outright scams he's put his name on.

[Yonnie3]

9. He is not protected by the LLC if ...

as an owner or officer he directs people to do illegal or fraudulent things. Also the LLC can be deemed not protective if he commingles personal money and LLC money. There are a bunch of ways to "pierce the corporate veil" (I remember this from the business law overview class I took many moons ago) and have the owners of a LLC held liable for actions of the LLC. The link I posted earlier mentions some of this. He always seems to blame someone else for issues with his businesses and would need to have that hold up in court. I'm sure that every attorney who is suing a Trump LLC dreams to have that LLC invalidated and then the same for "Trump Business LLC" which is over them. I suspect that it would take several levels and years to actually get to Trump himself.

I have exhausted my questionable knowledge of the subject.

[6chars]

7. I just figured out what he might have done

Kentuck posted a great note on the idea of debt parking
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028203048

Building on that I think Trump did the following.

Set up three LLC companies. Had company A loan company B $1b. Company A then sold the debt of was owed to company C for ten cents on the dollar, and Company A wrote off a $900m loss for tax purposes. Company C has never written this off as an uncollectible debt so company B never had a gain to be taxed for debt cancellation. Trump created a 900m tax write off out of thin air using a three shell technique. This is what the leaked I inviting the press to figure out.

[annabanana]

8. Here's a thread with some of the hard core. .

"Debt Parking"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028203048