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Trump’s Taxes: Everything Old Is New Again
Townhall.com ^ | September 29, 2020 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 09/29/2020 3:48:04 AM PDT by Kaslin

Did you know that Donald Trump paid very little in taxes in certain years? Seriously, I read it in the New York Times…several times. The latest “bombshell” story designed to take out the President is yet another rehash not only of things the media has reported in 2016 and 2018, but things he’s publicly admitted himself. In other words, it’s not news at all.

Never people to let the facts stand in the way of a good narrative, the media dutifully snapped into action to parrot the latest reworking of an old story as if it were new. The gang at Morning Joe were aroused by the news. Their brains so devoid of blood, with it flowing elsewhere in the bodies, that they brought on noted tax cheat Al Sharpton, who still hasn’t paid his tax debt, to lambast the President on the issue. It was like bringing in Jeffrey Epstein to discuss child care.

So what was the story? Basically, Donald Trump’s accountants followed the tax laws at the time to lower his tax burden over the course of his business life. I realize that’s a basic reciting of the story, but that’s really it. If you have someone do your taxes you’d hope they’d do the same.

Yet, the New York Times framed it as some nefarious act on his part, calling it “years of tax avoidance” in their headline. Well, there’s a significant and important difference between “tax avoidance,” which is perfectly legal, and “tax evasion,” which is not. The Times knows this, but they and their fellow travelers in the media are hoping their audience doesn’t. Given how many leftists still believe Russia is controlling an administration punishing their regime with sanctions, some people undoubtedly will.

But the thing about this latest “bombshell” is just how old the information is.

Here is a headline from 2016: “Donald Trump Acknowledges Not Paying Federal Income Taxes for Years.” Here’s another headline from 2018: “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father.” They’re both basically the same stories, and they’re both from the New York Times. You could almost forgive the people at the Times for not reading the Times, but 2 of the 3 “reporters” on this year’s version of the story wrote the 2018 version of the story.

What is it? To put it in the most basic of terms, since we’re dealing with complex tax laws and sums of money most of us don’t have, is this: If you’re a business owner, you can roll over excess taxes paid in one year to cover future taxes in another future year. By the same measure, you can spread losses out over multiple years too. This lowers your tax burden in future tax years but does not change your overall tax liability.

If that doesn’t make sense, think of it like this: If you had $20,000 in income taxes withheld one year but only owed $10,000, you’d be due a $10,000 refund. You can choose not to take that refund and let the IRS keep it against your taxes the following year. If, in that following year, you end up owing $10,000 again, but had nothing withheld, rather than having to cut a check, you simply use the $10,000 the IRS already has from you to cover it. You’ve technically paid “nothing” in taxes that year, but you’ve really already paid that money. In the current year, you didn’t cut a check to the IRS that year, but you did pay what you owed.

That’s an oversimplification, but it illustrates how our tax code works. The same goes for business losses. That is what Trump did.

The Times even acknowledges this, “Each time, he requested an extension to file his 1040; and each time, he made the required payment to the I.R.S. for income taxes he might owe — $1 million for 2016 and $4.2 million for 2017. But virtually all of that liability was washed away when he eventually filed, and most of the payments were rolled forward to cover potential taxes in future years.” (Emphasis added.)

The “payments were rolled forward” part is what I was describing. In other words – there’s nothing to see here.But the thing about this latest “bombshell” is just how old the information is.

Here is a headline from 2016: “Donald Trump Acknowledges Not Paying Federal Income Taxes for Years.” Here’s another headline from 2018: “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father.” They’re both basically the same stories, and they’re both from the New York Times. You could almost forgive the people at the Times for not reading the Times, but 2 of the 3 “reporters” on this year’s version of the story wrote the 2018 version of the story.

What is it? To put it in the most basic of terms, since we’re dealing with complex tax laws and sums of money most of us don’t have, is this: If you’re a business owner, you can roll over excess taxes paid in one year to cover future taxes in another future year. By the same measure, you can spread losses out over multiple years too. This lowers your tax burden in future tax years but does not change your overall tax liability.

If that doesn’t make sense, think of it like this: If you had $20,000 in income taxes withheld one year but only owed $10,000, you’d be due a $10,000 refund. You can choose not to take that refund and let the IRS keep it against your taxes the following year. If, in that following year, you end up owing $10,000 again, but had nothing withheld, rather than having to cut a check, you simply use the $10,000 the IRS already has from you to cover it. You’ve technically paid “nothing” in taxes that year, but you’ve really already paid that money. In the current year, you didn’t cut a check to the IRS that year, but you did pay what you owed.

That’s an oversimplification, but it illustrates how our tax code works. The same goes for business losses. That is what Trump did.

The Times even acknowledges this, “Each time, he requested an extension to file his 1040; and each time, he made the required payment to the I.R.S. for income taxes he might owe — $1 million for 2016 and $4.2 million for 2017. But virtually all of that liability was washed away when he eventually filed, and most of the payments were rolled forward to cover potential taxes in future years.” (Emphasis added.)

The “payments were rolled forward” part is what I was describing. In other words – there’s nothing to see here.

This, like the Bob Woodward “revelations,” is a rerun. Whatever happened to that Woodward book? That was supposed to destroy Trump, and 2 weeks later you don’t hear about it. That was after The Atlantic garbage story was supposed to destroy Trump. Which came after the Ukraine story that was supposed to destroy Trump. Which was…etc., etc.

Adding new adjectives to an old story doesn’t make it new, it just exposes the people behind it as desperate. We’ll see how it gets played in the debate tonight, but I suspect Joe Biden will try to re-spin it into something while refusing to discuss why his drug-addled, degenerate son raking in $3.5 million for God knows what from the wife of the former Mayor of Moscow is of no concern.

Everything old is new again when it comes to attacking the President, and nothing new matters at all when it exposes who Joe Biden really is. Democrats in the media are re-drilling dry wells trying to destroy President Trump while ignoring the gushers behind Biden. Rather than admit they’ve been wrong, it’ll only be a matter of time before liberals drag Michael Avenatti back on CNN to discuss how the President is a puppet of Putin’s. Lather, rinse, repeat.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 750; debt; joebiden; losses; newyorkslimes; notprofitable; presidenttrumn; taxreturns; trumpadministration
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1 posted on 09/29/2020 3:48:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Question of the day, who writes the 80k pages of federal tax code?

Senators and Congressmen.

Anyone for real tax reform, and dissolving the 80k pages of federal tax code? I don’t see any Democrats standing.


2 posted on 09/29/2020 3:53:52 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Kaslin

Donald Trump paid out very little in taxes because he is smart and has good accountants.

Joe Biden paid out over $3M in taxes one year on a salary of about $200,000 because he is corrupt.


3 posted on 09/29/2020 3:55:22 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: ClearCase_guy

When did Harry Reid start working for the New York Times???


4 posted on 09/29/2020 3:56:52 AM PDT by CMailBag
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To: Kaslin

Joe Biden has been on the government dole and surviving off taxpayer funds since 1973... Given his performance, he owes every nickle of it back to the taxpayers because all he’s ever done is raise their taxes.


5 posted on 09/29/2020 3:56:56 AM PDT by jerod (Nazi's were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: Kaslin

Why wouldn’t someone take advantage of every loophole to pay as little taxes as possible? As long as it’s nothing illegal, it’s not even anyone else’s concern. Where the money comes from is of greater interest. Biden?


6 posted on 09/29/2020 4:15:10 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Kaslin

Trumping the forces aligned against POTUS

Good morning hard-working, Americans. It’s Tuesday September 29, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1lqEQFVUo

It’s CHYna...with...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12778173/china-tricked-world-economic-suicide-lockdown/

PSYOPS X PSYOPS X PSYOPS X ??? = PSYOPS to what power? What nth degree? NWOdor POWER.

h/t INFOWARS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMf3wKBCPo

2020 see clearly


7 posted on 09/29/2020 4:19:39 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Kaslin

I learned it at daddy’s knee:

“Tax evasion, baaaaaad.”

“Tax avoidance, goooodddd!”

The President made an enormous contribution to America by creating *jobs* and plenty of them. Does anyone care to *investigate* how much President Trump has paid in payroll taxes?

Democrats prove yet again that they know nothing of how business works. Failures are *supposed* to happen. It’s part of the process. No successful entrepreneur gets to skip those learning experiences. Failures are priceless if they are used correctly. A winner dissects, analyzes, and moves on a lot smarter and better equipped.

They also could use a little education on the concept of *loss leaders*.


8 posted on 09/29/2020 4:36:52 AM PDT by jazminerose (Biden promises federally mandated muzzles for all.)
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To: pepsionice

Naw.

Everything that becomes law is written by K Street lawyers.


9 posted on 09/29/2020 4:38:45 AM PDT by jazminerose (Biden promises federally mandated muzzles for all.)
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To: jazminerose

You said it.


10 posted on 09/29/2020 4:39:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: pepsionice
Question of the day, who writes the 80k pages of federal tax code?

Senators and Congressmen.

Nope. They're not smart enough to do that.

They have legions of faceless hacks who are paid to do nothing but write laws, codes, and regulations according to the demands of politicians, lobbyists, and pressure groups. All the senators and congressmen do is to vote for bills that they have never read in their entirety, if at all.

Hence Pelosi's infamous comment, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it".

11 posted on 09/29/2020 4:52:53 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (When seconds count, social workers are days away.)
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To: Kaslin

When do we get to see Nancy Pelosi’s returns?


12 posted on 09/29/2020 4:53:48 AM PDT by SMARTY ("To choose is to invent." Sartre)
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To: jazminerose

“Failures are *supposed* to happen. It’s part of the process. No successful entrepreneur gets to skip those learning experiences.”

It’s part of the reason that businesses need some incentives to succeed. Liberals overlook this all the time when they demand that business owners should pay more and more in taxes.

Business owners gamble every single day against the chance of losing it all... would any of these Liberal jerks make that kind of wager on a daily basis?

Also, when business owners lose … it’s not something they endure ALONE, their employees and potential employees also lose!

BTW-No one who is broke will ever give you a job.


13 posted on 09/29/2020 4:59:04 AM PDT by SMARTY ("To choose is to invent." Sartre)
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To: Kaslin

they are playing it out that he is not a billionaire as the people thought


14 posted on 09/29/2020 5:08:40 AM PDT by Cronos (19 years on FR)
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To: Kaslin
If Trumps tax returns are as big a factor as Grab them by the p#%%y he is doomed ... NOT!
15 posted on 09/29/2020 5:33:31 AM PDT by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: Kaslin

When Ukraine indicts Hunter Biden, it’s all over.

His crimes lack the evidence for conviction in the USA but the crimes in Ukraine are well documented and there is lots of evidence there.


16 posted on 09/29/2020 5:39:32 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) t Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay My, oh, my, what a wonderful day)
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To: Kaslin

They are afraid Trump will bring up Hunter and believe this corrupt maneuver will stop him, it won’t.


17 posted on 09/29/2020 5:40:22 AM PDT by 1Old Pro (FILL THE SEAT)
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To: jazminerose

“Democrats prove yet again that they know nothing of how business works. “

I keep seeing this and I have to disagree. Did Pelosi, John Kerry, Liz Warren, Diane Feinstein all become multi millionaires because they are totally ignorant of how business works?

No. They are fully aware of it, they wrote the tax code that lets them all pay nothing in taxes and a lot of the laws businesses have to deal with. Remember also, a lot of these people started as doctors and lawyers too. Don’t think of them as stupid.

They are now quite effectively using that knowledge against their greatest political enemy, and bullshitting you in the process, making you THINK they are business stupid.

This is not stupidity or ignorance. They know exactly what they are doing.


18 posted on 09/29/2020 6:20:41 AM PDT by Paleo Pete (I smile because you are family. I laugh because you can do nothing about it...)
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To: Kaslin

Trump’s tax returns are the perpetual fishing expedition for RedTards and LibTards. I bet hardly anyone at the NY Times does their own tax returns and wouldn’t know MAGI from MAGA.


19 posted on 09/29/2020 6:34:30 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Kaslin

Isn’t it interesting that the NYTimes has had this story for months, but chose to dump it a few days before the debate.

Complete collusion with the Biden campaign.


20 posted on 09/29/2020 6:44:22 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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