Art of the Steal: This is How Trump Lost $916M and Avoided Tax

[swag]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/03/art-of-the-steal-this-is-how-trump-lost-916m-and-avoided-tax.html

By David Cay Johnston

The big New York Times scoop that Donald Trump used $916 million of tax losses to enjoy many income tax-free years raised a question the newspaper didn’t try to answer: How did Trump do it?

Trump, the only major-party presidential nominee in four decades to keep all his tax returns secret, insists “there’s nothing to learn from them.”

Yet in one day I figured out how Trump’s advisers almost certainly arranged the massive tax losses, skipped out on a massive income-tax bill, and then fashioned a loophole with more valuable tax benefits than the already liberal tax breaks Congress gives big real-estate owners while sticking others with the bill.

Trump dumped the real costs of all this on investors who saw gold in his brand name, but who lost everything even as he was paid tens of millions of tax-free dollars.

All this came from subtle clues on the front pages of Trump’s 1995 Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York state income-tax returns. Which sums were on which lines in each state pointed to how Trump must have organized his affairs. Two of the most respected tax professors in America agree with my analysis. Edward Kleinbard of the University of Southern California and Martin J. McMahon Jr. of the University of Florida refined my view.

. . . more

[Iliyah]

1. I was laid off back in 2007 and rec'd unemployment for almost

4 months. I had to pay taxes in 2008 for 2007 on that money. How in the hell is that fair?

[louis-t]

2. Because of repug policies, home values plummeted.

When people did short sales on their homes, they would have to report the shortage as income! That has since been remedied, but jeez!

[Dump The Rump]

3. T RUMP sells his royal name

T RUMP sells his name to all who have two dimes to rub together and then claims he lost the dime. Only a first class crook could lose a billion dollars letting you play his slots. In any other world he would be said to be running a criminal enterprise. T RUMP = Crooked Crook + bent backwards.

[underpants]

4. Excellent article. Rec'd

The technique is simple. The taxes due immediately because a debt is forgiven can be exchanged for relinquishing future real-estate tax deductions. Trump agreed to forgo his future right to take about $1 billion worth of depreciation on his casino hotels.

[bettyellen]

5. Kickity kick!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

6. Link?

[swag]

7. Did you not see the link at the very top of the post's text box?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

8. Oh, sorry!

I'd gone right to the text, right past the link, and while reading had scrolled down hiding the link in the process, saw the "more..." and thought you'd meant that to be a link.

Just reading the intro you posted activated my financial-math-impairment anxiety. However, I have now read the article, and while I can't totally comprehend the details, I think I get the main ideas:

1. The tax laws are set up to help greedy, rich bastards avoid paying taxes
2. Trump has used legal, and, most likely, illegal ways to support his money grubbing habits.
3. His financial dealings may very well pose a threat to national security should he become president.

Important article.