Smart Use of the Tax System? Or a Crook?

 

This headline pretty much sums up what the media buzz will be leading up to the election, “Donald Trump, a bad businessman or a tax cheat-probably both”

Some of the more interesting facts surrounding this statement include the surprise that in the 10 years leading up to his presidency Donald Trump paid no income tax, and only $750 in federal taxes the year he was elected.  Sadly, people working in supermarkets earning $25,000 a year would pay more. 

Now others would claim that this does not indicate any wrong doing, but simply a smart use of our present tax system; and they might be correct.  For Trump simply claimed chronic business losses and wrote off business expenses for years to avoid tax payments.  Heck, he even wrote off $70,000 as a business expense for hair dressing charges while serving on The Apprentice TV show.  Additionally, he received a $72.9 million tax refund which is presently under audit by the IRS. 

However, while all this might be perfectly legal, it does indicate that the persona that Trump puts forth as a successful businessman is a total fabrication, a lie.   He even wrote a best seller book about his success as a businessman, and started a university for students to attend to learn the Trump business model for success.   By the way, the university turned out to be a fraud and cost him over $25 million to settle the case. 

Additionally, it now appears many of Trump’s best known and highly touted businesses are really money losers. These include his golf courses, hotels, and resorts.  And let’s not forget his failed casinos like the one in Atlantic City.  No wonder he continually tries to hold presidential events at and steers visiting foreign diplomates to these places.  Our government has already spent over $1.2 million, since Trump has taken office, in helping to stem his losses by utilizing his facilities. 

But, here’s the real possible fraudulent aspect of President Trump’s finances.  While he continually claimed poverty when it came to paying federal income taxes, he presented a totally different picture during the same timeframe when he was seeking loans from banks totally over $421 million.  To them he provided financial documentation showing successful money making ventures in order to secure these funds. 

And if Trump is losing so much money out the door as he claims, he is going to have to sell some of these money losers to pay off these loans which are now coming due.

There are more tax revelations, but as usual all these are labeled “Fake News” by President Trump and his supporters.  If so, there is a simple solution.  He could release his tax returns and put all this to rest. That is, if he truly has nothing to hide.  Strangely, he has refused to do that, reinforcing justifiable suspicions. 

I always thought that President Donald Trump was a fraud regarding his successes as a businessman considering his ‘daddy’ actually gave him most of his fortune, but what I never knew was how he gamed our tax system and our banking system at the same time by divergent themes.   Someday maybe others will come to realize how difficult it is to determine the truth from the fiction about President Donald Trump, the former TV reality star.  Perhaps he’s not the shinning knight on the big white horse that can save us all, as he would like us to believe; for self-promotion is Donald’s forte. 

“Fraud:  a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.” Oxford Dictionary