Trump could be in a lot of legal hot water if he loses the election
A surprising revelation in the New York Times story about President Donald Trump’s taxes is that the “audit” he’s long claimed prevented him from releasing his tax returns to the public is real. It turns out the IRS perked up when Trump claimed business losses during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. The losses were so large that they could be retroactively applied to previous years and cancel out millions of dollars’ worth of tax liability from his days as host of The Apprentice.
It’s legal to use huge business losses to offset other income (though whether it should be is another question), but it’s not at all legal to cook the books in order to generate paper accounting losses to avoid taxes. It’s not clear whether Trump broke the law, but the existence of the years-long legal battle over the audit suggests the IRS has reason to believe he did. And some of the accounting practices documented on his tax returns are extremely fishy — characterizing aspects of his lifestyle and wealth transfers to his heirs as business expenses.
While nothing about being audited prevents you from releasing your taxes, it would seemingly make it unwise to do so. The IRS is limited in its investigative capabilities, while journalistic and scholarly interests are eager to put resources behind hunting through Trump’s tax returns. What the Times story, and the paper’s previous reporting on Fred Trump’s taxes, showed is a lot of dodgy tax avoidance going on.
But as long as Trump is president, he can shield himself from accountability for any tax-related crimes. He can also likely shield himself from debt collectors, who seem to have significant claims coming due over the next four years. From obstruction of justice to sexual assault allegations to campaign finance law violations, Trump is counting on the fact that he’s president to stop the law from coming after him.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-could-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-hot-water-if-he-loses-the-election/ar-BB19xxqB?li=BB141NW3&ocid=DELLDHP
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Time to face the music, Mr. "You're Fired"...
Trump could be in a lot of legal hot water i̶f̶ no! when he loses the election 