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“YOU’RE FIRED”: In 2006, businessman Donald Trump performed his punchline on the reality series “The Apprentice,” which Trump directed from 2004 to 2015. Photo: Fred Prouser / Reuters
The president of the United States has demanded a business deduction for private vacation homes, airplanes, and hairstyling expenses. It has also registered debts dating back several years, revelations show.
Tax professor Ole Gjems-Onstad has analyzed the lengthy New York Times document on President Donald Trump’s tax returns for the past 20 years.
– What has been revealed is not so terrible only for tax purposes. Everyone in the US plans taxes, much more than we are used to, Ole Gjems-Onstad, professor of tax law at BI Norwegian Business School, tells VG.
Before taking over the White House, the reality series “The Apprentice” was one of the things Donald Trump was best known for. The show has also contributed greatly to the business mogul’s wealth.
Disclosures to the New York Times show that accounting for TV show revenue has been important to Trump in avoiding paying taxes for ten of the last 15 years.
TAX INVESTIGATION: President Donald Trump in front of the White House on Monday. Photo: TASOS KATOPODIS / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
Lose a lot in business
He avoided paying taxes in part because he demanded tax breaks for the use of everything from recreational property to hairstyling expenses and private jets during the years he participated in the program.
But another important explanation is that many of Trump’s businesses, which he owns and operates, have suffered significant and persistent losses.
– He’s a boastful Pope, he’s not as big a businessman as he wants, says Gjems-Onstad.
EXPERT: Professor of Tax Law at BI Norwegian Business School Ole Gjems-Onstad. Photo: BI
The losses are recorded in a way that has largely exempted Trump from paying federal income tax on the $ 1 billion income from “The Apprentice” and associated brand deals and investments.
Being a primetime host made Trump a more attractive brand to investors. It also secured half of the show’s profits. In total, this amounted to $ 427.4 million, more than four billion crowns, writes the New York Times.
Modest taxpayer
The effective tax rate paid by the richest 1 percent of Americans would cause Trump to pay more than $ 100 million in taxes, the newspaper writes.
READ ALSO: This is how Trump changed America
Instead, he paid a modest $ 750 ($ 7,000) in federal income taxes in 2016 when he won the presidential election and $ 750 in income taxes his first year as president in 2017.
– He is a man who has contributed little with tax money to the community. But many will probably say that it has created a lot of jobs after all, notes the BI professor.
“Save” losses for later years
Throughout his career, Donald Trump’s business losses have often reached amounts greater than can be used to reduce other income tax in one year.
But the US tax model allows entrepreneurs in some cases to present “residual losses” to reduce taxes in future years. It has been widely used.
“I love the depreciation,” Trump said during a presidential debate in 2016, notes the New York Times.
“FOLLOW THE MONEY”: Bill Christeson speaks in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC in July this year, when the court issued rulings on the publication of the presidents’ tax returns. Photo: JIM LO SCALZO / EPA
– No tax evader
Gjems-Onstad notes that the disclosures do not refer to tax evasion.
– You cannot call Trump a tax evader. But he insures himself to the maximum and makes the fiscal adjustment in a country where the possibilities of deduction are great, says the professor of BI.
The economic challenges are in line for the president: For the next four years, Trump will have to service loans for which he is personally responsible, equivalent to $ 300 million.
– Figures presented by the New York Times do not provide a complete presentation. Trump also has assets. We don’t have a balance showing whether it can go bankrupt, says Gjems-Onstad.
also read Trump Strikes Back: “Fake News”
The “image of the rich” cracks
The New York Times article is based on tax returns of more than 20 years, documents that Trump himself did not want to publish. He is the first president in the history of the United States to deny him access to his tax returns.
The newspaper writes that knowledge of the tax returns reveals a president with an economy under severe pressure and millions of dollars in debt. In 2018, for example, Trump announced in the reveal that he had made at least $ 434.9 million.
Tax records, on the other hand, give a completely different picture of its bottom line, namely $ 47.4 million in losses.
RIVERS: Joe Biden and Donald Trump are fighting to be elected president of the United States. Photo: AFP
Tuesday debate
Recent revelations show that a growing portion of Trump’s revenue comes from businesses that could create, or have already created, conflicts of interest with the presidency.
The tax revelations about Trump come just two days before the important first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
– The articles are part of the electoral campaign. The New York Times is not neutral, but a newspaper that opposes Trump and wants to create unrest around him, says Professor Ole Gjems-Onstad.
Democrats were quick to use the tax case for all it’s worth. As early as Sunday night, Joe Biden’s election campaign apparatus began selling stickers that read, “I’ve paid more taxes than Donald Trump.”
