Donald Trump may have avoided paying income taxes in the US for up to 18 years

[Pimander]

What would you do if a person paid no tax for 18 years?  Send them to jail for being a scrounging loser?  Shun them as a centre of corruption and pestilence?  No, I'll be really smart and make them the President! 

Donald Trump 'may have avoided paying tax for up to 18 years'

Donald Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes in the US for up to 18 years after declaring a $916m (£706m) loss on his tax returns in the mid-1990s, according the reports.

The Republican presidential candidate, who has throughout his campaign for the White House refused to release his tax returns, is said to have received the large tax benefit from business debts recorded in 1995.

The New York Times, which claimed to have obtained Trump's tax return for that year, reported that tax experts hired to analyse the documents said US laws would have let Trump use the near-$1bn loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income until 2013.

A man supposedly worth billions can't pay tax or even disclose his financial dealings.  Trust?  Hahahahahahaha....

[starwarp2000]

Hillary used the Clinton Foundation to hide her criminality! Let's see the audit from that cesspool of crime! Oh, that's right Obama pardoned it. I hear that the Clinton Foundation will become a Cabinet Department if she gets elected. How much is the estimation of the Clinton Foundation's crimes? About 100 billion should round it up nicely.
Let's put this into perspective. You have a Satanic Witch Lesbian Whore calling a self-made billionaire a criminal all the while she "IS STILL STEALING TAX PAYER FUNDS AND DONATED MONEY FOR THE POOR"! What a world we live in where the man who created millions of jobs and revenue for America is raked over the coals. How many times has Hillary gone bankrupt?? We will never know as the IRS has sealed her records! And she want's transparency? Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, give me a break!

[Pimander]

What the hell has Hilary Clinton got to do with Trump being a greedy parasite who doesn't pay tax?

[starwarp2000]

What the hell has Hilary Clinton got to do with Trump being a greedy parasite who doesn't pay tax?

I thought that was obvious! Hillary hasn't payed taxes for 35 years. That makes her not only a bigot, but also a criminal. Trump acted within the law! Hillary did not! People need training in ethics? Or has the MSM slowly rotted your brains.

[Pimander]

This is a thread about Trump not Hilary Clinton.  You can bleat on about someone else as much as you like but Trump is still a parasite if he is worth billions and doesn't pay any tax.

[starwarp2000]

This is a thread about Trump not Hilary Clinton.  You can bleat on about someone else as much as you like but Trump is still a parasite if he is worth billions and doesn't pay any tax.

OK! Trump acted within the law.

[rdunk]

Trump is a family businessman, just like hundreds of thousands of others in this country!! Tax laws are tax laws, and must be followed precisely. Large businesses ensure tax law compliance by hiring knowledgeable accounting firms and lawyers to handle all of the business and personal tax stuff!

Business losses are business losses, and business losses are tax deductible within the guidelines of US tax laws. So, what is the big deal?? If he has not broken the law, then should not even be a discussion about this!!!!

Trump and his compamies own huge amounts of property, and property taxes are totally separate from income tax laws, except property taxes paid are deductibles on the income taxes!! 

Such is the American tax system. That is why "income taxes" need to be collected on the basis of what is spent - like the "sales taxes" we pay all of the time, rather than basing taxes on someone's income, after deductions!!

Everybody in this country that files income taxes takes advantage of every aspect of the tax law to gain the best personal benefit result. If you have a business loss, you deduct it!! Yes, a big loss deduction may well mean a proportion of such loss carries over for several years of "deductions"! That simply is just the way it is!!

Thus Trump tax thing is called, "making much ado about nothing" - to distract from the real reality of a failed and failing Democratic socialist leaning far left candidate.

[Pimander]

It fascinates me how utterly blinkered people can be.  I only posted that to see if an obviously fair and correct position would meet with loud posts which pretend to disagree but actually ignore the point. 

If you are worth billions and don't pay tax that is wrong.  Legal or not.  It is immoral.

Paying taxes is how society collects money to do things like help the poor, have a fire service, ambulance service, defend the country etc.  If you don't when you can afford to then you are socially irresponsible.  It's so obvious I find it almost incredible I am pointing it out. 

[Phedre]

Trump did not write the tax laws, period. The Political Elites did, to shelter their own theft, and to cover their corporate "friends". It is legal. Your rath is miss-placed. The Tax Laws need to be definately overhauled. To punish someone who does not break the Law is on dangerous ground for us all. It was how ever illegal, for his tax return to be published, will be watching how that goes.

[Pimander]

Trump did not write the tax laws, period.

He has exploited them and therefore ripped off society.  The guy is a parasite.

The Political Elites did, to shelter their own theft, and to cover their corporate "friends".

Trump has been a political donor and is part of the elite.  What do you think the elite is if it isn't the super rich.  Has America gone completely mad?

It is legal.

so what?  Morality and the law have never been bed fellows.  It is still immoral parasitic behaviour for a billionaire to avoid paying tax.

Your rath is miss-placed.

Nope, my rath is with a public too stupid not to see through a billionaire who has never paid tax trying to pass themself off as an anti elite man of the people.  I have never seen anything so ludicrous in my life.  It is beyond me how anyone can fall for it.

AND I AM NOT A CLINTON SUPPORTER!

It was how ever illegal, for his tax return to be published, will be watching how that goes.

So what?  Every wealthy person on the planet should have their tax returns published.  Why should it be secret?

Secrecy?

"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it... The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment...

The only reason to want to conceal it is if you have something to hide.

[rdunk]

Just to add to this little thought about the morality of not paying taxes - of course the law is t file..........and then pay what is owed it any, or receive your refund it too much has previously been paid!!

The New York times paid no taxes in 2014 - according to news reports!!

Breibart.com
Joel B. Pollak 2 Oct 2016

The New York Times has excited the Clinton campaign and the rest of the media with a revelation that Republican nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss in 1995 that might have resulted in him not paying taxes in some subsequent years.

The implication, reinforced by CNN's Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday morning, is that Trump "avoided" paying taxes, when in fact his tax liability was zero.

But the Times itself has "avoided" paying taxes — in 2014, for example.

As Forbes noted at the time:

... for tax year 2014, The New York Times paid no taxes and got an income tax refund of $3.5 million even though they had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in 2014. In other words, their post-tax profit was higher than their pre-tax profit. The explanation in their 2014 annual report is, "The effective tax rate for 2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations." If you don't think it took fancy accountants and tax lawyers to make that happen, read the statement again.


Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/10/02/new-york-times-paid-no-taxes-2014/

[Pimander]

The New York times paid no taxes in 2014 - according to news reports!!

SO what?  Why does that make it OK?

Trump is a billionaire part of the elite and pays no tax.  He is a parasite.  No amount of talking about newspapers tax affairs or other people will change that.  And Trump wanted to keep this from you people.

Man of the people?  Don't make me laugh.

[astr0144]

In 1st World society...as we presently know it..

At the moment...it seems a certain amount of tax should be paid towards our chosen system to work within certain things that have been either agreed by some trusted source..(How that is determined maybe hard to define and of varied opinion) who determines what those things should be for or maybe by some form of overall vote.

be it to pay towards Military , defence, Police, Fire service ..NHS , Roads etc

BUT beware... I think most  types of Business is what makes values..products and services and ..creates jobs and aids prosperity.

If a system decides to tax a business at higher Tax rates... it can destroy a business or Companies growth...or put it out of business.

Some suggest corrupt Governments can often also be part of the problem in over taxing businesses.and they do this, as they do not want to allow certain businesses to get too prosperous or over powered...
Unless its in their interest !..

One way to stall them is to over tax them..

Smart Businessmen know ways around the tax system to try to prevent that..

but there are no doubt some that should be paying more tax...and get away with doing so.

Some maybe on the Governments hot list...such as those associated with Bilderberg groups as an eg..some I suspect may not pay as much tax as they should..

but I have not checked to confirm if that maybe correct or not, I am just speculating !

What I am not sure about is..

What Tax an actual business should pay..?

What Tax is its Employees paying who work for that business..

Is the business profits being taxed.. or is the tax paid by its employees salary / wages not enough to cover what ever level of tax is expected from the business overall to be paying ?.. 

and if its seems tax paid by its employee's make up a level of tax that a business is suggested to be paying..

Should any remaining profits then be allowed to go to the Company / Business ?

Or are the Govt trying to squeeze even  more out of the companies profits ?

Are Govt's running a fair Tax system for the good of all its Countries population...or corrupt tax system that drains its profits...and syphon's of some  profits to certain other sources..

Admittedly the way the political system works .. its down to how the winning party operates..

and there will always be for and against how that party operates or uses the tax's..

Smarter parties maybe much more efficient in how they use that money..or if they are corrupt also they maybe more crafty how they may cover up any shady activities..

It maybe that other parties may try to be more honest, but may not be as smart in how they go about using the tax money..

Then when opposing parties see and expose some flaws to score points.. then there seems to be issues raised as to how that tax money should have best been used...

then one may say that the political system is at fault for not using that money the best way it could have done !

So some businessmen.. may well resent that and not believe that they should be paying taxes that maybe being wasted by a political system that is not doing as good a job as it should !!!

So it seems a never ending circle..

and maybe that's why maybe some businessmen could be seen as trying to cheat the system.

as either they don't agree with it  or trust the system.

or they are just corrupt !...

The other thing in Life in general..

It just seems at times ..maybe its down to competition..which can seem cruel to those who maybe weaker...but the right thing to do for the stronger..

I don't think any of us like the idea to think we should just be easily replaced by someone else in our employment just because they maybe better in doing our jobs.. but we may think that should be the case for those at the top or the main decision makers..

There is always someone smarter..better, faster in what seems all endeavor's....that could do a better job...

If we had divisions of employees or who or what ever..
be it physical or mental / IQ levels etc etc..

like lightweights, middleweights, heavyweights..

If a company or system wants the best...maybe it will always select the heavy weights who in most cases will be more powerful than the other divisions..

It seems just all down to fate where we are in the scale of things..

but we vote for an elected system that maybe does not always make the right or best decisions.

But in an elected system.. existing people making the important decisions do not always get replaced by someone better..

[Pimander]

What Tax is its Employees paying who work for that business..

Is the business profits being taxed.. or is the tax paid by its employees salary / wages not enough to cover what ever level of tax is expected from the business overall to be paying ?.. 

and if its seems tax paid by its employee's make up a level of tax that a business is suggested to be paying..

This is how the elite would want you to think.

Who benefits most from a multi-national company?  A person who works lots of hours and gets paid enough to survive?  Or is it the owners who get paid for the work other people do in the form of profits?  Obviously it is the owners who should therefore pay most (I'd argue nearly all) tax.

Who can afford to pay taxes?  The low paid worker who barely earns enough to survive or the elite who profit from their work?

The rules that govern how lower- and middle-income earners pay tax have to apply to everybody. Otherwise our democracy is at stake. People will lose faith. There are already signs of deep hatred towards the elites and scorn for democracy. This will only increase if politicians keep ignoring this issue. Because here's the thing – people know the world has got less equal.

And we all know what happens when faith in democracy diminishes: people vote for politicians who offer simple solutions, they vote for populists, for racists, for fascists.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/04/donald-trump-not-paying-taxes-smart-threat-to-democracy-panama-papers

The answer is so obvious.  Only the rich can afford to pay substantial tax so only they should do so.  Tax avoidance is morally wrong whatever the legality of it.

Of course the elite (like Trump) will peddle the idea that it is OK for the burden of taxation to be on poor and middle income workers.  but they represent the elite.  They are wrong.

I wonder how many Americans have worked out why there is so much pro-Trump propaganda flying around conspiracy sites?  What nation is it that has an EXTENSIVE intelligence service that would throw its weight behind Trump due to his foreign policy?  Gold to the member who figures this one out.  Come on, who gets it?  Who has it in them to think clearly

[rdunk]

Pimander, in the United States, on average, it is already much as you say it should be. Sure, a lot of people have really big annual incomes, but for the most part, they also pay a huge share of the total income tax collected. Many articles available online that discuss such!

For example, the top-earning 1% of Americans pay nearly half of total income tax collected - reported at 45.7% for 2014.

A 2015 Wall Street Journal article says, "Top 20% of Earners Pay 84% of Income Tax, and the bottom 20%? They get paid by Uncle Sam.