Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies

[mucifer]

Source: ProPublica

Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax.

For instance, Trump told the lender that he took in twice as much rent from one building as he reported to tax authorities during the same year, 2017. He also gave conflicting occupancy figures for one of his signature skyscrapers, located at 40 Wall Street.

Lenders like to see a rising occupancy level as a sign of what they call “leasing momentum.” Sure enough, the company told a lender that 40 Wall Street had been 58.9% leased on Dec. 31, 2012, and then rose to 95% a few years later. The company told tax officials the building was 81% rented as of Jan. 5, 2013.

A dozen real estate professionals told ProPublica they saw no clear explanation for multiple inconsistencies in the documents. The discrepancies are “versions of fraud,” said Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. “This kind of stuff is not OK.”

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-never-before-seen-trump-tax-documents-show-major-inconsistencies

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Not a good week from trump. ProPublica got the info from New York FOIA

[tikka]

1. This is just confirmation of what Traitor45 has done for years

and that was guessed by most people.

[PatSeg]

11. Yes

I rather thought this was common knowledge about Trump. I've read about it from several sources.

[tblue37]

21. But having the actual documents in hand makes a difference. nt

[PatSeg]

23. I think it had been documented

previously, though who can keep up with this man's decades of corruption. Meanwhile, it certainly needs repeating, keep drumming it in so no one forgets.

[ck4829]

25. Yep

[pansypoo53219]

2. why else did the sleezebag hide his taxes. hope he gets a nice fat back tax bill before he leaves.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. He---trump Onc--did same lying about sales of condos in his buildings

"They" being Don Jr. and Ivanka, and trump, to get approval and loans for their condos, they had to have a certain pre-sales rate.
They frauded the numbers to the banks and to prospective buyers, to create a picture of high demand.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. "made the buildings appear more profitable to lender & less profitable to officials who set tax"

(paraphrased)

THIS is "standard practice". If you are selling, you make it appear that the property is worth far more than it really is to get a maximum price but when it comes to real estate taxes, you take all kinds of depreciation into account to reduce the assessed value.

Of course doing this with large properties is on a whole other order of magnitude than when done by a simple homeowner.

[Maraya1969]

8. "Standard practice" on your taxes?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. That's what those folks do

It's a sortof loophole that (correctly) assumes that disparate entities that regulate this will not connect the dots. And in this particular case, it is in reference to property taxes (vs income taxes).

(ETA - many regular homeowners do the same)

[pecosbob]

13. Standard practice...minus the fraud part of course.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Exactly.

The big boys do it because they are using the fraudulently increased value to offer the property as collateral to secure huge loans. It becomes a ponzi scheme and it seems folks like Kushner and his 666 5th Avenue was an example of this... And when he was at the end of his rope, his daddy-in-law's "relationship" (and all the illegalities of that) with the Saudis saved his day.

[pecosbob]

15. I watched this game of musical chairs played during the Savings and Loan Collapse of the 80s

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Yup. I remember that mess and the creation of the FSLIC to deal with it.

[gademocrat7]

4. Grifter in chief

[mia]

5. Nothing new. This is Trumps claim to fame.

Trump’s Riches and the Real-Estate Tax Racket
The industry where you really can make billions and pay no taxes.

...One thing is certain. If Trump's full tax returns are ever released, the country would get an up-close look at how Trump's empire sits upon a real-estate tax racket, composed of a princely pile of tax breaks, loopholes, and deferrals that make wealthy real-estate developers even wealthier by eliminating most of their taxes. For Trump, it's a point of pride: “I fight like hell to pay as little as possible,” he said in August 2015.

“The Declaration of Independence may tell us that all men are created equal, but the government definitely favors us real estate investors!” boasts the Trump University book entitled “Commercial Real Estate Investing 101.”

So how would a big-time real-estate developer like Donald Trump manage to whittle down his income tax bill to nothing? Well, it's not that hard. Those who satisfy the IRS's threshold for being a “real estate professional”—which likely includes Trump—are allowed to write off an unlimited amount of paper losses against other income. And the tax code offers a bonanza of so-called losses for developers to write off.

Real-estate developers, like Trump, often take out big loans to finance their investments. “I'm the king of debt. I'm great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me,” Trump said in a June interview. Indeed, a New York Times investigation found that Trump-owned companies hold at least $650 million in debt—more than twice the amount that could be surmised from his public filings.

https://prospect.org/power/trump-s-riches-real-estate-tax-racket/

[wcast]

10. Thanks for the link 😊

[Vinca]

6. This is why he's got a stable of lawyers working to keep his taxes under lock and key.

[jcmaine72]

7. Probably the same type of "major inconsistencies" that our government once put Al Capone in prison

for. Today, criminals like this can be President. Not what I'd call progress.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. "versions of fraud". That would be a crime, right? Will it sway anybody?

[BlueIdaho]

17. Two sets of books...

This is a pretty idiotic stunt, easily discovered and prosecuted.

[dalton99a]

18. Bank fraud and/or tax fraud.

[live love laugh]

20. I'm sure Republiclowns 🤡 don't mind 🙄. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. K&R

[ck4829]

24. K&R