Posted on 08/18/2022 9:37:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
My Red State colleague Bonchie predicted that Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg would plead guilty in his tax-evasion trial in New York, and Thursday he did just that. The judge promptly sentenced him to 5 months in jail at Rikers Island and ordered him to pay nearly $2 million in fines and penalties.
Many are touting that the big news coming out of this case is that Weisselberg agreed to testify against the Trump Organization in a trial this fall. Notably, he will remain free on bail until that testimony is complete. Never Trumpers are licking their lips—but this is not the clear victory they’d hoped for because Weisselberg refused to agree to cooperate in a broader investigation into Trump. More on that in a moment. In the case this fall, meanwhile, Trump is not even a defendant. From the Associated Press:
The plea bargain also requires Weisselberg to testify truthfully as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organization goes on trial in October on related charges. The company is accused of helping Weisselberg and other executives avoid income taxes by failing to report their full compensation accurately to the government. Trump himself is not charged in the case. [Emphasis mine.]
Meaning that even if prosecutors prevail in the fall, The Donald himself won’t be shipped off to Rikers.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to all 15 counts against him, admitting that he kept $1.7 of untaxed extras hidden and off the books. The perks included school tuition for his grandchildren, a rent-free Manhattan apartment and lease payments for his luxury car. Liberals are celebrating:
BREAKING: As part of the plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Allen Weisselberg is REQUIRED to testify at the company’s trial and admit his role in conspiring with Mr. Trump’s company to carry out the tax scheme. Trump is toast.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) August 18, 2022
Not so fast. As I mentioned, Weisselberg will testify against the Organization, but will not cooperate with a broader investigation against Trump himself. From the New York Times:
The plea deal does not require Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate with the district attorney’s broader criminal investigation of Mr. Trump, and his admissions will not implicate the former president. His willingness to accept jail time rather than turn on Mr. Trump underscores the extent of his loyalty to a family he has served for nearly a half-century, and it helped stymie the larger effort to indict Mr. Trump. [Emphasis mine.]
Those hoping for another “the walls are closing in” moment may be surprised when the Donald escapes once again. Prosecutors may have a win here, but it’s certainly not all they hoped for as they subjected Weisselberg to intense pressure to try to get him to “flip” on Trump and basically spill every secret he knows. It’s not going to happen. Weisselberg’s lawyer Nicholas A. Gravante Jr. issued a statement Thursday:
In one of the most difficult decisions of his life, Mr. Weisselberg decided to enter a plea of guilty today to put an end to this case and the yearslong legal and personal nightmares it has caused for him and his family. Rather than risk the possibility of 15 years in prison, he has agreed to serve 100 days. We are glad to have this behind him.
Despite not achieving their goal of getting Weisselberg to flip, prosecutors still tried to paint it as a victory. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, who is usually soft on crime, issued his own statement, saying that the plea “directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity” and that “we look forward to proving our case in court against the Trump Organization.”
Prosecutors and the Justice Department have been going after Trump with everything they’ve got for years now, and they’ve got yet another victim. This one is a 75-year old retired executive not named Donald Trump. Congratulations.
My company paid for my lease car when I did business for them and allowed me to use the car personally even outside of business, should I have declared this as income for the purpose of taxation?
And oh yeah, my company also paid for my hotel expenses including meals when I visited their HQ out of state ( also paid for my airfare ). Are these income as well?
I never declared them. Been doing this for years. Am I guilty of tax evasion?
There will be a reckoning for these people in the future.
Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE there will ever be a reckoning for these people??
This case concerns whether Weisselberg and other Trump employees evaded paying income taxes on nonwage compensation received from the Trump Organization.
In the case of Weisselberg, the nonwage compensation included: leased Mercedes-Benzes, an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, as well as tuition for private schools for his grandchildren.
Weisselberg worked for the Trump Organization for over 50 years, having begun his career working for Trump’s father. Weisselberg, as the saying goes, is like a family member. So you can appreciate how it might seem like a shady area of existing and current tax law regarding whether these nonwage benefits are taxable as ordinary income under the current Tax Code.
And keep in mind, of the Tax Code, even for accountants and tax lawyers, is so ridiculously complex and contradictory that it has been shown time and time again that if you were to line up five experienced CPAs and five expert tax attorneys and asked them each to calculate the taxes owed on a moderately complex income tax return, you’d get ten different answers.
The other question is this — have the Feds ever targetted any other executives on this same charges other than those of the Trump Organization? If so, I’d like to see a few examples. If not, why not?
They've gone over the edge, and are playing with fire.
He agreed to testify. Under oath. Whether that is “against the Trump organization” remains to be seen.
For many years Forbes magazine created a moderately complex business return and sent it out to 50 companies to be prepared.
I do not believe that they ever had two tax returns in agreement, and none ever matched the sample return that they prepared in house.
When you have the tax code written by lawyers and accountants, do not ever expect that the resulting tax laws will lower their billable hours.
Add in any international tax issues and you have a several thousand dollar expense for doing your taxes. For most companies, it really is cheaper to hire staff to manage it, with a small mountain of cash to pay for the audits.
*** 87,000 new IRS agents, and how many new IRS employees to answer the phones? Why, none at all ***
The legal department had a field day and threatened to go public about Uncle Sam going after hourly workers for accepting a teaspoon of ice cream.
That was a number of years ago.
And the answer is probably yes on the car.
You might want to talk to your company's legal about it.
The IRS is guano crazy.
87,000 armed IRS agents would like to have a talk with you.
Actually, I think technically you are supposed to declare the amount of personal use of the car. But don’t quote me on that.
I certainly don’t, or at least not in this life. The reckoning, will be in eternity. For these turkeys, that will be a million time worse, than the worst thing they could imagine in a million lifetimes. Now, that’s really bad, but it’s the only reckoning they will ever get.
Is this federal tax evasion, or state of New York? I have not heard anybody in the media identify that.
As far as what is compensation and what is not, remember that we are talking about tax law. That does NOT have a firm relationship with reality; it’s more like a passing acquaintance. Think of “it’s just Lunch”
Yes, and I've just reported you!
(Heh-heh!)
Regards,
This is one where I disagree and the tax laws were broken. The tuition is especially problematic as I see under no circumstance that these should have been paid by the company and not reported as taxable. Now, how he is being treated versus how others that might do something similar is the question.
Are they normally criminally charged and jailed or just audited and have to pay taxes and penalties, that I do not know.
if the company is paying personal expenses it is compensation
business expenses are not
associated w Trump=jail
not associated w Trump=write a check
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