Quote:Donald Trump calls the Trump SoHo tower in lower Manhattan an architectural marvel. The real marvel is what happened to the profits, which vanished from America thanks to a deal with a corrupt Icelandic investment company with ties to Russian oligarchs—all under an arrangement that Trump himself approved. The lawsuits say it was tax fraud, but the lawyer for the man behind the deal says it was perfectly legal tax planning. It’s a story that should have voters asking hard questions about the Republican presidential nominee and his financial relationship with those oligarchs, whose fortunes depend on remaining in the good graces of the murderous Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin, whom Trump praises as a great leader.

Quote:Mitt Romney was excoriated during the 2012 presidential campaign for paying $4.9 million in federal income tax, or an average of just 14 percent of his adjusted gross income, in the two years for which he released returns. No one should be surprised, though, if Donald J. Trump has paid far less — perhaps even zero federal income tax in some years. Indeed, that's the expectation of numerous real estate and tax professionals I've interviewed in recent weeks. Even with hundreds of millions in gross revenue from his vast real estate empire, "it's both possible and legal that Donald Trump would pay little or no income tax," said Len Green, an accountant and chairman of the Green Group, a tax and accounting advisory firm. Mr. Green is also a real estate investor, teaches at Babson College and is the author of the forthcoming "The Entrepreneur's Playbook."

"I would expect he's paying little or no tax," agreed Steven M. Rosenthal, a veteran tax lawyer and senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy center. That's because Mr. Trump, as a prominent and active developer, can take advantage of some of the most generous tax breaks in the federal tax code to reduce his reported income to near zero, or even report a loss. Few tax advisers to major real estate developers would speak for attribution, because their clients benefit from the same tax breaks available to Mr. Trump. But all told me they knew developers in Mr. Trump's league who pay little or no income tax despite hundreds of millions in cash flow.

Quote:A New York Times investigation into Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's US real-estate holdings revealed that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount that Trump's public filings, made as part of his campaign, show. Trump's dealings also depend on a variety of sources, one of which he has repeatedly attacked during his campaign: China, The Times found.

Quote:Trump has promised to release his returns when his audit ends, but claims he is under continuous audit by the IRS and that releasing his returns (including returns for years that are now closed) could have an adverse impact on current and future IRS examinations. As a former IRS commissioner and practicing tax lawyer, I understand it may be inconvenient for Trump to release his tax returns but we all know — and the IRS has confirmed — that nothing prevents any of us from releasing our tax returns any time we want. And by the way, for those who listen carefully, Trump's promise means he will never release his tax returns. Trump's advisors also have substantial control over when his current examination will conclude.

There is, however, a first step that Trump has no excuse for not taking. He can and should immediately release the first two pages of his Form 1040, along with his Schedule A, for the past 20 years. This would tell us how much he makes, how much he pays in taxes, and how much he contributes to charity. Releasing this information would have no impact on any pending or future IRS audit of Trump. Zero. None. It is a risk-free first step with no downside. While painting a far from complete portrait, it would answer a few of the questions that Trump himself has raised during the campaign: He claims that he makes a lot of money; he claims that he makes significant charitable contributions; and he claims that he reduces his tax liability as far as current law allows.

Quote:It’s worth noting that the existence of an audit, according to the IRS, does not preclude the release of tax returns. In fact, it actually makes the release of returns less risky. The primary issue with making your tax returns public is triggering an audit. Trump doesn’t have to be worried about that. But there is a bigger problem with the Trump campaign’s argument that all his returns are under audit: It’s not true. The truth is disclosed in a letter from his accountants that was published to the Trump campaign website in March. It reveals that Trump’s returns from 2008 and prior are not under audit and have been “administratively closed” by the IRS.


So when Trump and his campaign staff say they are not releasing his taxes because they are under audit, that’s not true. None of his taxes from 2008 or prior are currently under audit, and yet Trump still hasn’t released those returns.

It’s also worth noting that nothing in the letter from his accountants advises him not to release his tax returns.
Trump’s tax advisers do note that in a “sense” the “pending examinations are continuations of prior, closed examinations.” But this fiction would justify perpetual non-disclosure of Trump’s returns.

Trump, apparently, is audited every year. He is currently arguing that the audit of his 2015 return precludes the release of his 2002 return, even though it is not under audit. Under this theory, even if the 2015 audit is closed, his upcoming 2016 audit would preclude the release of all his returns from 2002 to present.

Trump has also not addressed at all why he’s not releasing returns prior to 2002. Trump also is reluctant to reveal even basic information about his taxes, such as his overall tax rate. Asked in a May interview about his tax rate, Trump recoiled. “It’s none of your business,” he snapped.

A few days ago, Eric Trump — Donald’s son and a close adviser — said it would be “foolish” for his father to ever release his taxes. This point of view doesn’t seem consistent with someone who ever intended on making any of his tax returns public — at least not before election day. But one thing should be clear: It has nothing to do with an audit.

Quote:For months, Donald Trump has held that he won’t release his tax returns until the Internal Revenue Service completes an audit of his finances. On Tuesday, he admitted that he could actually make the returns public at any time. Asked on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” if he felt “pressure” to release his tax returns with the news that his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence ®, would release them this week, Trump was defiant. “When the audit is complete I will release my returns,” the real estate tycoon insisted. “I have no problem with it. It doesn’t matter.” Every presidential nominee for the past four decades has made their tax returns, and former president Richard Nixon released his while under audit. As O’Reilly pointed out, “People say you can do it while being audited.” “Nobody would recommend that,”

Quote:LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman is now throwing his weight behind the mounting pressure on Republican candidate Donald Trump to release his tax returns.  In a Medium post on Monday, Hoffman said he would give up to $5 million of his money to veterans if Trump releases his returns before the last presidential debate, slated for October.  Specifically, Hoffman is backing a campaign led by Marine Corps veteran Peter Kiernan on Crowdpac to incentivize Trump to release his returns.

Quote:Speaking to the Pittsburgh Tribune, Trump’s son cleared things up admirably. Donald Trump Jr. said the real reason Trump won’t release his returns is that if he released them, then the public would get a chance to see what they say, and Trump doesn’t want the public to see what they say and ask questions about it:

Quote:When asked why his father has not released his tax returns as presidential candidates have traditionally done, Trump Jr. said, “Because he's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from (his father's) main message.”

What kind of questions?
Well, tax returns would shed light on questions that have been raised regarding whether Trump is really worth $10 billion, as he claims. Since his only claim to office is his business experience, understanding how successful a businessman he really is seems relevant.

Tax returns would also reveal who, exactly, has been paying him and whom he owes money to — possibly shedding light on ties to Russian oligarchs or other foreign groups whose interests are relevant to the campaign.

Last but not least, tax returns would clarify how generous Trump has been to charity over the years. Trump says he’s been very generous, but reporters have not been able to independently verify much philanthropy..

Quote:Donald Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years, according to tax records obtained by The New York Times and published on Saturday night.

The documents indicated that Trump declared a $916 million loss in 1995, providing him with a deduction so large it could have eliminated his obligation to legally pay annual federal taxes by up to $50 million for nearly two decades, tax experts told The Times.

Trump has refused calls to release his tax returns, a decades-old tradition every Republican nominee since Richard Nixon has followed. At Monday night’s presidential debate, Clinton suggested Trump was perhaps refusing to publicly disclose his tax documents because he had not paid federal taxes. “That makes me smart,” Trump replied, raising eyebrows across the political world.

The Times said it had obtained the documents from an anonymous source who mailed the documents to its offices. The return address on the envelope was Trump Tower in New York City.

A lawyer for Trump, Marc E. Kasowitz, threatened The Times with “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action” if it published the documents.

The documents were published by The Times as Trump told a Pennsylvania crowd to “follow the money,” his latest line of attack against Hillary Clinton, in reference to his allegations she was engaged in a pay-to-play scandal while secretary of state. The Trump campaign responded to the report by slamming The Times and trying to deflect to Clinton.

Quote:As the Times explains, there’s no indication in these documents that Trump did anything improper. He really did have a number of businesses fail in the early ’90s, and federal law does allow wealthy individuals to take net operating losses from partnerships they own and use them to cancel out personal income.

But simply as a matter of appearances, it is probably a bad look for Trump to admit publicly that he has been living a lavish lifestyle while having paid $0 in federal income taxes for some undetermined number of years. Many of us, after all, seem to manage to pay taxes while enjoying a distinctly non-Trumpian lifestyle.

We learned previously from documents Trump filed to gain a casino license in New Jersey that he paid no taxes for a couple of years in the late 1970s, while separate licensing documents indicate the same for a couple of years in the early 1990s.

And while it’s certainly true that he has paid other taxes over the years, it’s also true that he’s received nearly $1 billion in tax subsidies for his various projects.