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Donald Trump has earned a reputation for being a successful and astute businessman over the years, but an in-depth article on the state of the president’s finances casts doubt on the image he portrays to the world.
Here are five things we learned from New York Times report, which was published just a couple of days before Trump faces Joe Biden in the first televised presidential debate.
Trump’s golf courses, including those in Scotland and Ireland, are losing money
Many of your best-known businesses are losing money.
The Times says that many of Trump’s hotels, golf courses and resorts have been spilling money, even though he frequently points to them as evidence of his success.
On his golf courses, Trump has claimed $ 315 million (£ 246 million) in losses since 2000, while his Trump International hotel in Washington has lost $ 55 million (£ 43 million), the newspaper reported.
A $ 100 million mortgage on Trump Tower is due in 2022
The president will face financial pressures as debts fall due
Trump appears to be personally responsible for $ 421 million (£ 329 million) in loans, most of which are due within four years, according to the Times.
In 2012, he also obtained a $ 100 million (£ 78.3 million) mortgage on the Trump Tower in New York, and although his company paid $ 15 million in interest on the loan, the original amount has yet to be repaid. That expires in 2022.
“If he wins reelection, his lenders could be in the unprecedented position of weighing the foreclosure of a sitting president,” the article warned.
Trump has capitalized the costs incurred by his businesses to finance a luxurious lifestyle
Trump spent $ 70,000 on his hair while filming The Apprentice
Among his extravagant purchases was $ 70,000 (£ 54,786) spent on combing his hair while filming the TV show that helped propel him to fame.
The Times reports that the president of the United States has used the cost incurred by his multiple businesses to finance his lavish lifestyle.
His houses, planes and golf courses are part of the Trump family business and therefore Trump classified them as business expenses.
The expenses have helped reduce the president’s tax liability because they can be written off as deductions.
Ivanka, the daughter of Donald Trump
Trump may have lowered his taxable income by treating his daughter as a consultant
The president’s daughter, Ivanka, reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned totaling $ 747,622 (£ 579,171).
This exactly matched the consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii.
Ms. Trump was a CEO of Trump’s companies who received profits and paid consulting fees for both projects, so it appears that she was treated as a consultant on the same deals she helped manage.
Employers can deduct consulting fees as a business expense, but the arrangement must be an “ordinary and necessary” part of running the business.
Trump paid $ 750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017
Donald Trump reportedly paid just $ 750 (£ 578) in income taxes in the year he became president.
The article says that the President of the United States initially paid $ 95 million (£ 74 million) in taxes over the 18 years he studied, but later claimed a federal tax refund of $ 72.9 million (£ 57.03 million). .
He also allegedly pocketed $ 21.2 million (£ 16.5 million) in state and local refunds.
Thanks to the refund, Trump paid an average of $ 1.4 million (£ 1.09 million) in federal taxes between 2000 and 2017, the Times reported.
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An average American taxpayer in the top 0.001% of earners would have paid around $ 25 million (£ 19.5 million) a year for the same time period.
The huge refund is the focus of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) inspection of your finances that has already been widely reported, and if the tax collector rules against Trump, it could cost him more than $ 100 million.
The president has often faced calls to release his tax returns, but claims he cannot disclose the information because an audit is underway. The head of the IRS says this is not true.
In a statement given to the Times, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization said that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate,” adding: “Over the past decade, President Trump has paid dozens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including the payment of millions in personal taxes since he announced his candidacy in 2015. “
The newspaper argued that “personal taxes” are not the same as “income taxes.”
