Posted on 09/28/2020 4:51:41 AM PDT by grundle
As a Libertarian, I’m against tax loopholes. I want the tax code to be as simple as possible, and with marginal tax rates as low as possible.
Democrats prefer higher marginal tax rates, so they can claim that they want to “soak the rich.”
But at the same time, these Democrats also favor giving rich people all sorts of loopholes, writeoffs, and deductions, so they don’t actually have to pay those taxes.
And now, liberals are angry at Trump for using a tax loophole that was signed into law by Obama.
The New York Times just reported:
Mr. Trump harvested that refund bonanza by declaring huge business losses — a total of $1.4 billion from his core businesses for 2008 and 2009 — that tax laws had prevented him from using in prior years.
But to turn that long arc of failure into a giant refund check, he relied on some deft accounting footwork and an unwitting gift from an unlikely source — Mr. Obama.
Business losses can work like a tax-avoidance coupon: A dollar lost on one business reduces a dollar of taxable income from elsewhere. The types and amounts of income that can be used in a given year vary, depending on an owner’s tax status. But some losses can be saved for later use, or even used to request a refund on taxes paid in a prior year.
Until 2009, those coupons could be used to wipe away taxes going back only two years. But that November, the window was more than doubled by a little-noticed provision in a bill Mr. Obama signed as part of the Great Recession recovery effort. Now business owners could request full refunds of taxes paid in the prior four years, and 50 percent of those from the year before that.
Mr. Trump had paid no income taxes in 2008. But the change meant that when he filed his taxes for 2009, he could seek a refund of not just the $13.3 million he had paid in 2007, but also the combined $56.9 million paid in 2005 and 2006, when “The Apprentice” created what was likely the biggest income tax bite of his life.
The records reviewed by The Times indicate that Mr. Trump filed for the first of several tranches of his refund several weeks later, in January 2010. That set off what tax professionals refer to as a “quickie refund,” a check processed in 90 days on a tentative basis, pending an audit by the I.R.S.
His total federal income tax refund would eventually grow to $70.1 million, plus $2,733,184 in interest. He also received $21.2 million in state and local refunds, which often piggyback on federal filings.
This problem could be solved instantly with a flat 10% tax on ALL income, no deductions, no credits, no exceptions.
0bama made him rich.
If the law allowed business owners to get back 4-5 years of paid taxes, he did nothing wrong.
Why weren’t the rest of us allowed to get back 4-5 years of paid taxes?
Now, are we going to look at Biden & Son finances?
They’re angry cuz they done got fooled again.
Suckers.
Obey, don't ask questions, and put your mask on citizen!
ONE tax rate.
Same for everybody.
That’s it.
First... If he hasn’t broken the law, they have no argument.
Second... How in the hell did the NYT get their hands on Trump’s tax documents? THAT is the far bigger issue here.
“ONE tax rate. Same for everybody.”
9-9-9
I used those provisions. In fact hr block software actually calculated my refund for me and correctly. It wasn’t millions but I still got back a good chunk of change using that very provision.
I have since moved to Tennessee. No income tax, but there is a pretty good sales tax in just about everything. Everyone pays it without exemption. So it is probably more fair across the board. Buy more you pay more taxes.
When is someone in the MSM going to ask why so many companies incorporate in Biden’s home state of Delaware?
....why are these legal provisions in these tax laws called “loopholes”....?? there is a difference between tax AVOIDANCE and tax EVASION.... you would have to be crazy not to take advantage of whatever legal provisions exist to avoid paying taxes...the H&R Block software that you reference certainly would not be considered as taking advantage of “loopholes” which has a very negative meaning to most uninformed Americans (which is probably MOST Americans...)
I have an acquaintance (Formerly a good friend) who fancies himself a libertarian when he’s really just a leftist who despises Trump. He just tweeted how shameful it is that Trump only paid $750.
It gave me great pleasure to send him this article.
Schadenfreude
this......
I hate taxes.
Just as everyone became a virologists and statisticians last spring, now everyone will become a tax accountant.
Politics are changed by simple concepts and phases. The details are not important.
Yep, Goebbels figured that out years ago, worked like a charm.
You were.
You just needed to have massive losses that offset the prior taxes you paid.
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