• Trump filed his taxes, legally. That is outrageous

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to All on Tue Oct 4 05:57:56 2016
    XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.politics.usa, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
    XPost: us.taxes, alt.politics.corruption

    Every American hates tax filing season. In total, Americans spend an
    estimated 8.9 billion hours preparing tax returns. The tax industry,
    and the time it takes to file taxes, costs the American economy more
    than $409 billion — each year.

    Americans put all that time and energy into tax returns for a larger
    purpose: to pay as little as possible.

    In this regard, Donald Trump is not anomaly. In fact, far from it.

    Let’s be honest, no one — not you, not anyone — has ever tried to
    pay more in taxes. We all, yes, all, look for ways to reduce our tax
    burden. The government actually helps us out with this. That is why
    we are given the option to take a big standard deduction, or to
    write-off all our expenses during the year with the itemized
    deduction. Did you claim a child exemption? Perhaps you deducted
    your mortgage interest or large medical expenses? Did you write-off
    a donation to your favorite charity? Those credits and deductions
    reduce our tax bill.

    In fact, last year, 34 million families deducted a total of $73
    billion from just the mortgage interest deduction alone. As many
    families deduct the loss of income for various reasons, so, too, do
    businesses. And perhaps no one is more infamous for that, at
    present, than Donald Trump.

    Over the weekend, the New York Times published Donald Trump’s 1995
    income tax returns. The story has gone viral. The tax returns show
    that Trump made $7.4 million in interest income, and roughly $6,000
    in wages. But the real story is that Trump claimed a loss of $916
    million. In IRS terms, that would be deemed a net operating loss (or
    N.O.L). As the NYT writes,

    N.O.L. allows a dizzying array of deductions, business
    expenses, real estate depreciation, losses from the sale
    of business assets and even operating losses to flow from
    the balance sheets of those partnerships, limited liability
    companies and S corporations onto the personal tax returns
    of men like Mr. Trump.

    Creative writing by the NYT appears to make Trump look unethical,
    even though the NYT themselves admits that the tax returns appear
    all within the law. With only the few details provided, not only
    were Trump’s actions legal, but they were very common.

    In fact, N.O.Ls are a key feature of providing tax harmony for
    businesses. The non-partisan Tax Foundation (TF) even notes that
    this provision in the tax code actually discourages tax avoidance.
    In their example, they explain what might happen if a business makes
    $50 in June but loses $100 in July. Overall, that business, for tax
    purposes, would have suffered a loss — a loss that would be
    reflected in the tax returns.


    In fact, in 2014, 1.2 million businesses did the very same thing by
    carrying forward losses to reduce tax liabilities.


    But, as the TF rightly points out, the situation is little different
    if that company made $50 in December but lost $100 in January, the
    start of a new tax year. As TF writes,

    net operating losses (NOLs) allow businesses that lose
    money in one year and make money in another to smooth
    those ups and downs. We tax income (profits) not losses,
    and so somewhat arbitrarily based on the calendar year.
    Otherwise, a taxpayer would have to pay income taxes
    despite not earning income, and would have an incentive
    to manipulate gains and losses to make them happen in the
    same year.

    To be exact, the NYT, among many other media outlets, presumes that
    the $916 million write-off allowed Trump to avoid taxes. But this is
    merely a guess. In fact, the NYT has no clue what Trump’s tax
    liability was in the following years.

    Additionally, this is just Trump’s individual taxes — his businesses
    and his employees likely paid billions of dollars in personal and
    corporate taxes.

    Furthermore, Trump is not a clever sneaky businessman taking
    advantage of esoteric tax laws. In fact, in 2014, 1.2 million
    businesses did the very same thing by carrying forward losses to
    reduce tax liabilities.

    Of those 1.2 billion entities that did the same thing Trump did,
    there is one that stands out. The New York Times — the same entity
    that is accusing Trump of, well, some sort of wrong-doing — did
    exactly the thing they wasted newspaper ink excoriating him for
    doing. Forbes Magazine profiled the NYT NOL carry forward and wrote,
    “for tax year 2014, the New York Times paid no taxes and got an
    income tax refund of $3.5 million even though they had a pre-tax
    profit of $30 million in 2014.”

    How do you spell “New York Times”? Oh right, it’s spelled H-Y-P-O-
    C-R-I-T-E.

    Although Trump’s numbers are large, and although he may have used a
    large business loss to avoid taxes for years, it’s amazing that this
    is a larger story than the tax avoidance schemes utilized by the
    Clintons. The argument is purely mathematics.

    Trump avoided taxes by claiming a massive loss from properties and
    investments, thus showing a small amount of income tax. The Clintons
    pay income tax — that is, on the income they actually report.


    This is deceptive politics by the New York Times.


    By contrast, the Clintons use far more nefarious and unethical means
    to shelter taxes. First, the Clintons shifted all their bloated
    mansions into residential trusts, meaning they can avoid taxes on
    the appreciation of those properties in the future.

    The Clintons have also used tax havens and shell companies to avoid
    paying higher income taxes. However, perhaps most important of all,
    they have used the Clinton Foundation as a tax exempt “slush fund.”
    The slush fund has been used to fund political allies, luxury office
    space, and first class travel for the Clinton family.

    This is deceptive politics by the New York Times. Trump’s tax return
    looks audacious; it looks expensive with big numbers and
    questionable tax liability. Yet, it’s the Clintons who use sneaky
    maneuvers and deceitful foundations to hide their money and their
    wealth while making their tax returns look rosy for the American
    public.

    That’s politics at its best. Trump didn’t play the game, and now he
    looks like the crook. Irony? Perhaps. But the true elephant in the
    room is our flawed tax code. If people are dismayed at Trump’s tax
    filings, there’s only one entity to blame: Congress. This could all
    be solved with fair and comprehensive tax reform.

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    --
    Wikileaks says they'll surprise and shock us all with their findings
    on Crooked Hillary. They must have found a trace of ethical
    behavior.

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