How Trump’s $50m golf club became $1.4m when it came time to pay tax
Source: The Guardian
How Trump’s $50m golf club became $1.4m when it came time to pay tax
Jon Swaine in Briarcliff Manor, New York
Saturday 12 March 2016 14.25 GMT
An attempt by Donald Trump to slash the property tax bill on a golf club outside New York City may be undermined by records indicating that he previously said the property was worth 35 times more than the value he is now trying to convince a judge to approve.
The Republican presidential frontrunner is suing the town of Ossining in Westchester County to reduce the taxes on Trump National Golf Club, a 147-acre property with a lavish clubhouse and 18-hole course whose managers are separately accused of causing floods that led to $240,000 worth of damage to local public facilities
Trump’s lawsuit in county court argues that the luxurious private club, which he bought in foreclosure for about $8m in the mid-1990s before spending what he claimed at the club’s opening event was another $45m in improvements, has been unfairly assessed and is in fact worth only $1.4m.
“That is crazy low,” Fernando Gonzalez, the Ossining town assessor, said in an interview. Town authorities are fighting back against the allegations. “We believe they do not have a case,” said Gonzalez. Attorneys for Trump did not respond to questions.
Trump’s new valuation, however, contrasts with the 92-page financial disclosure document that he released to the US government...
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/12/donald-trump-briarcliff-manor-golf-course-tax
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