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By AP 
9h ago
Washington – A New York Times report that President Donald Trump paid only $ 750 (about R12,800) in federal income taxes the year he entered the White House and, thanks to colossal losses, no income tax. The income in 11 of the 18 years that the Times reviewed served to raise questions about Trump’s self-image as a canny and successful businessman.
That Sunday’s report came just weeks before Trump’s re-election bid served to heighten attention on businessman Trump, an identity he has been cultivating for decades and that helped him take the presidency four years ago in his first candidacy for political office.
The Times report deepens the uncertainty surrounding a tumultuous presidential campaign in the context of a viral pandemic, race riots in American cities and a fierce battle for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. .
Since entering the White House, Trump has broken with the tradition established by his predecessors not only by refusing to publish his tax returns, but by waging a legal battle to keep them hidden.
The Times report suggests why this might have been the case. He reported that many of Trump’s top companies are losing money, even as those losses have helped him reduce his federal tax bill to next to nothing.
Eugene Steuerle, a tax expert at the Urban Institute, said he wasn’t surprised that Trump turned out to have paid almost no federal income taxes. Most commercial real estate developers deduct large interest payments on their debts from taxable income, thereby reducing your tax bills.
They also generally avoid capital gains taxes by investing the proceeds from the sale of one building in the purchase of another.
“Most tax experts expected that you would find few tax payments from President Trump,” said Steuerle, who served as a Treasury Department official during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
The Times noted that Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said about the Times report that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate” and asked for the documents on which the report was based, that the Times declined to provide to protect its sources.
The Times said Garten later directly disputed only the amount of taxes Trump had paid.
Here are some key takeaways from the Times reports:
TRUMP PAID ONLY $ 750 IN TAXES IN BOTH 2016 and 2017.
The newspaper said Trump initially paid $ 95 million in taxes during the 18 years he studied. But he managed to get most of that money back by claiming – and receiving – an impressive $ 72.9 million federal tax refund. According to the Times, Trump also pocketed $ 21.2 million in state and local refunds, which are generally based on federal filings.
Trump’s huge refund became the subject of a long-standing Internal Revenue Service audit of his finances. The audit was widely known. Trump has claimed that was the reason why he cannot publish his statements. But the Times report is the first to identify the issue that was primarily in dispute.
As a result of the refund, Trump paid an average of $ 1.4 million in federal taxes from 2000 to 2017, the Times reported. By contrast, the average American taxpayer in the top 0.001% of earners paid about $ 25 million annually during the same time period.
TRUMP HAS FINANCED AN EXTRAVAGING LIFESTYLE USING COMMERCIAL EXPENSES.
From his homes, his plane, and $ 70,000 in hairstyles during his television show “The Apprentice,” Trump has capitalized on the costs incurred by his businesses to finance a luxurious lifestyle.
The Times noted that Trump’s homes, planes, and golf courses are part of the Trump family’s business and as such, Trump also classified them as business expenses. Because businesses can write off business expenses as deductions, all of those expenses have helped reduce Trump’s tax liability.
MANY OF YOUR MOST KNOWN BUSINESSES ARE MONEY LOSERS
The president has frequently singled out his far-flung hotels, golf courses and resorts as evidence of his success as a developer and entrepreneur. However, these properties have been draining money.
The Times reported that Trump has claimed $ 315 million in losses since 2000 at his golf courses, including the Trump National Doral near Miami, which Trump has described as a crown jewel in his business empire. Likewise, his Trump International Hotel in Washington has lost $ 55 million, the Times reported.
FOREIGN VISITORS HAVE HELPED SUPPORT TRUMP’S PROPERTIES
Since Trump began his presidential career, lobbyists, foreign governments and politicians have lavished significant sums of money on his properties, a spending spree that raised questions about his ownership and legality.
The Times report illustrates just how much that spending has been: Since 2015, his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida has received an additional $ 5 million a year from increased membership. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association spent at least $ 397,602 in 2017 on the Trump Hotel in Washington. Overseas projects have yielded millions more for Trump: $ 3 million from the Philippines, $ 2.3 million from India and $ 1 million from Turkey.
TRUMP WILL FACE FINANCIAL PRESSURE AS DEBTS COME IN
Trump seems certain that he will face severe financial pressure from the huge amount of debt he has absorbed. The Times said the president appears to be responsible for $ 421 million in loans, most of which are due within four years. On top of that, a $ 100 million mortgage on the Trump Tower in New York will expire in 2022.
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