Does Donald Trump Pay Any Income Taxes at All?
As Fahrenthold and Rosalind S. Helderman had already revealed, in April, many of the donations that Trump claimed to have made turned out to be gifts in kind from his businesses, such as free rounds of golf for charity auctions.
Fahrenthold’s latest revelation, which the Post published on Sunday, was that Trump has “found a way to give away somebody else’s money and claim the credit for himself.” Apparently, the Trump Foundation raises money from other charities, and from individuals with whom Trump has done business. Then it gives away the money with Trump’s name on the check. The last donation Trump made to his charity, Fahrenthold reported, came in 2008. Since then, nada.
.. These experts explained to Stewart that the federal tax code is so generous to real-estate developers—so stuffed with deductions, credits, and loopholes they can exploit—that it may well have allowed Trump to bring his taxable income down to nothing, or next to nothing. Which might help explain why he is so reluctant to release his tax returns.
.. Perhaps one of the reasons that Trump didn’t give any money to his foundation was that he didn’t need any charitable deductions to reduce his tax bill—because it was already zero, or close to it.
.. Surely a man as determined and tax-averse as Trump, in seeking to reduce his tax obligations, would exploit every option that the tax code offers, including this very obvious one. Unless, of course, he didn’t need to.
.. “It is likely that Trump has not paid any income tax since 1978, or maybe a little bit in a couple of years,” Cay Johnston told me.
.. “Can you imagine Donald Trump making anonymous gifts to anybody?”