I don’t know if I’m wicked but I do know that I get no rest. I was minding my own business coming back from a farewell luncheon with a friend in Sherman Oaks when I got a text from Murfster: “I just saw a rocket ship to Mars. The New York Times got hold of 20 years of Trump’s tax returns. I’m posting highlights.” I wrote back, “Jesus Christ, I hope WWIII doesn’t break out Tuesday morning when I’m driving to Las Vegas.” Moral of the story, don’t leave the internet unattended these days for more than a few hours — at least not during waking hours on this continent.

You’ve probably got the broad brushstrokes by now, that Donald Trump paid $750.00 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and nothing in the period ten years prior. That’s really something. When I became disabled about eight years ago, the IRS was hot on my tail to know why I hadn’t filed a return for 2012. I explained that I became disabled in fall of 2011 and would file something late. And I’m no billionaire.

Plus, you remember Trump talking about his tax returns perpetually being under “audit?” I would like to see the step by step reports on any of those audits. I would like to have a bottle of opioids when I see them, because I have a feeling they stagger all credulity. Having worked in Hollywood, I am familiar with creative accounting. This is beyond creativity, this is science fiction. I put it to you friends, how can you be a “billionaire” and pay less taxes than a laundromat attendant in Flasher, North Dakota?

Here’s a Trump tweet that didn’t age well atall atall.

Only 20% on $790K. Trump, we are given to believe, makes billions but he only pays bubble gum money in taxes. Plus, his deductions are really something. $72,000 for his hair?

A banner headline at Drudge does not do Trump’s cause any good, that is for damn sure.

You’d drag your ass away from the podium and skulk out of the room, too, if this was your financial picture. Daily Beast:

The Times said it would not reveal the sources of its information for fear of identifying them. But the paper also claimed that follow-up stories were coming. And it’s clear, from the first piece, that reporters there have copious amounts of primary documentation.

The tax data the paper obtained portrays Trump as financially pressed by loans and a tax dispute—a far cry from the model of a successful businessman that he has sold the public.

Trump is personally liable for over $300 million in debts that have to be paid off over the next four years, according to the report, including a $100 million one on Trump Tower in New York City. Trump is also embroiled in a tax refund fight with the IRS that could force him to pay more than $100 million, owing to the possibility that he may have inflated the losses he claimed using a tax provision passed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2009.

And these are just his tax issues. Don’t forget the folks in Southern District of New York law enforcement and their litigation.

 

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1 COMMENT

  4. Just for further perspective, I paid a little over that amount on my own taxes last year and I haven’t cracked the poverty line in the last ten years.

    • I paid $719 to the feds in 2016, on less than $11K of income. Since then medical costs have taken care of most of that. (But I was paying plenty when I was working.)

      • Same, P J, back when I had mainstream jobs. No medical costs as yet, though a diploma mill suck me with a student loan bill I’m currently relying on IDR to keep me afloat.

      • The one time I had a decent warehouse job with insurance even after Wall Street did almost their best to destroy the global economy… I paid. I got a refund but I paid some taxes (over $1000). One of the supervisors at the place thought I was a “fool” for paying. No, I didn’t nickle and dime the USA. Somebody has to pay for things that the common good uses. Even after explaining/arguing, this bidness guy thought I was still an idiot. Note: this medical supplies company… actually bragged of getting a golf guy (his only qualifications that he actually stressed! in the newsletter) to help the company.

        Note 2: a son of another business man… “poor” folks don’t need money. Shouldn’t even get to vote. And social security and medicare are a waste. He was loaded. Probably hangs around with other like minded folks. Believe them when they say stuff… and this was 2015.

        • Yeah, Senovio, I’ve never been one of those loons who resented paying his taxes either. This was especially true in the last few years, when Uncle proved to be a better provider for my needs than the state of TN was. While, yes, some of that money gets wasted, a lot of it also goes to the common good. And EFF the tax cheats!

    • Well, last year I paid just over $6100 in taxes to the Federal government (the total amount withheld from my paychecks was a little under $6400 so I got a tax refund of more than $250).
      Considering my “taxable” income was over $46,000, that means that my tax rate was over 13%.

    • I’m thinking she can kiss that pre-nup money goodbye. Oh, she can and probably will file for divorce as soon as Biden is declared President Elect but she knows how petty and vindictive her hubby is and that he will drag things out as long as possible. If he knows he’s going down and that he’s going to be bankrupt as in the sense regular person bankrupt, or worse a new administration turns SDNY loose and they RICO his ass there will be nothing with which to pay “Melanie” her fee.

      She had chances to cash out over the years but got greedy. Had she quietly made way for trophy wife #4 she’d have her high priced condo and a nice amount of money to live on and could have quietly chain migrated her parents into American citizenship before her hubby got serious about running for President. Of course, like everyone else she assumed he’d never win and used his running to negotiate a better fee for her arm-candy and pop out a kid services.

      I have no sympathy for her. Perhaps I can muster up some for Barron since he’s still so young and facing a VERY different life than what he’s been conditioned to believe would be his birthright. A little.

      • For Melania, no, no pity at all. For Barron, yeah, sympathy is warranted. This kid had no choices in terms of what he was born into. And soon, he will no chance in terms of escaping it.

        • He might still have a chance. Tiffany’s mom did all she could to keep her (Tiffany) at arm’s length from the Trumps. For a while, it seemed that despite the odd appearance here and there at some family function/event Tiffany was in fact keeping her distance and setting herself up for an independent life. She had her own circle of friends and got herself a great education including a law degree from a quite prestigious school well connected to DC White Collar law circles – and could easily have gotten herself jumped over the drones hired fresh out of law school to grind away a hundred hours a week for a couple of years to get to practice some actual law. She could have been a junior partner at a top firm within a couple of years by only working seventy hours a week or so. However Tiffany recently tossed all that away by taking a job for her p.o.s. father’s company.

          I think you’ll agree that right this very moment she’s regretting that because she has been covered in Trump orange fecal matter and it will be next to impossible for her to wash it off. Her only chance of doing so would be to publicly split with her father in the next few weeks and I don’t see that happening. So now she’s stuck with a cushy job at a higher salary than her work will merit – for a company that won’t exist all that much longer! Not exactly the kind of thing that will look good on her CV! Tiffany went for the easy money and the fame. I’ll be her mom has been sick to her heart recently and is now truly heartbroken over not being able to protect her – to get her to recognize the whole Trump Org was a house of cards that would one day fall.

          “One day” is close at hand.

          As for Barron, by the time he’s done with school his daddy’s company will have long ceased to exist. He’ll be lucky to live even a well-to-do upper middle class life and wind up graduating college deeply in debt – especially if he attends a top private university. As you say it’s not his fault his parents are both pieces of crap. That’s why I can summon at least some sympathy for him, provided he accepts the reality of who and what kind of people his relatives are. If he’s not too far gone, maybe Mary Trump will take pity on him and help him develop into a decent human being.

          • Quite compassionate of you, Denis. Near as I can tell, Mary Trump is about the only one of Barron’s relatives who might give the kid a fighting chance.

          • The kid is damaged to be sure. How much so depends on the daily caregivers who have been raising him and how much exposure he’s had to his father. Given her educational and professional credentials I agree with you that Mary might be able to give him a fighting chance. And I believe that even if behind prison bars Trump (and his wife too) would fight tooth and nail to keep her from becoming the kid’s guardian.

            Alas, as Tiffany has shown even with a mom who tried hard and with some success to limit her exposure to Trumplandia its a tough thing to resist the lure of the lights so to speak. And Barron has been exposed to a greater degree than Tiffany was.

  8. He’s a crap businessman when it comes to his official business – but his real business has been money-laundering, and he’s done much better at that.

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