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70,000 dollars for the hairstyle - at the expense of the tax authorities

2020-09-28T06:11:45.081Z


The New York Times' tax revelations about Donald Trump reveal that he is not very successful as a businessman - or he has perfected tax avoidance.


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Donald Trump has beautiful hair - and deducted the bill for the hairdresser from the tax

Photo: Michael Brochstein / ZUMA Press / imago images

Donald Trump's orange hairstyle is an expensive affair for the American taxpayer: According to research by the "New York Times", the real estate mogul deducted more than 70,000 dollars for the styling of his hairstyle during the runtime of his show "The Apprentice".

And even after moving to the White House, a large number of write-offs and losses ensured that Trump was largely spared from the tax authorities.

According to the newspaper, he has not paid a cent to the Federal Tax Office in eleven out of 18 years.

In the year he won the election and in his first year in office, the man who boasts to his supporters that he is “really rich” paid $ 750 each.

  •  You can read the research of the "New York Times" here: Trump's Txes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avodidance

Unlike the presidents before him, Trump persistently refuses to publish his tax returns.

On Sunday, two days before the first TV debate with challenger Joe Biden, the "New York Times" enforced transparency.

The newspaper has the tax data of the Trump empire with around 500 companies spanning two decades, and two conclusions can be drawn from the revelations:

  • Donald Trump, who sells himself to the electorate as a gifted entrepreneur and self-made billionaire, is

    nowhere near as successful as he claims

  • or he has

    exhausted

    the

    art of tax avoidance

    at the expense of the American treasury.

Research by the newspaper suggests that it is a combination of both factors.

After all, one of the New Yorker's business ideas initially paid off:

The self-marketing.

His reality show "The Apprentice" and royalties for using his name made a total of $ 427 million.

Trump reinvested the money, preferably in golf courses, which however rarely turned out to be profitable.

In 2015, his financial position was apparently so precarious that the New York Times confirmed a presumption that had arisen after Trump's surprising election victory in 2016: that he wanted to boost his own weak market value with the candidacy.

"Fake," complains Trump.

But he still refuses to give any numbers

Trump himself called the report "a total fake" on Sunday evening and claimed to have paid "a lot" of taxes, especially in New York State.

With reference to an ongoing tax audit, however, he again refused to provide figures.

"You treat me terribly, (the tax authority) IRS, terribly," he had recently complained.

The New York Times now explains what this tax audit is all about: In 2010, Trump received a "quickie" from the Treasury, a short-term tax refund that is granted subject to further scrutiny.

He owed the gift primarily to a tax reform by the Obama administration, which had extended the possibility of carrying back losses after the financial crisis.

In total, Trump received a repayment of $ 73 million.

He's still arguing with the tax office as to whether the payment was right.

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Bottomless holes: Trump's golf courses are loss-making

Photo: Leon Neal / Getty Images

The newspaper's research casts doubts not only on Trump's tax compliance, but also on his ability as an investor.

And they shed light on his conflicts of interest as president.

  • The nearly 5000 square meter

    property "Seven Springs" in the state of New York

    , according to the Trump organization "a retreat for the Trump family", was classified as a business investment by the tax authorities.

    The advantage: property taxes could be fully deducted as business expenses.

    And Trump also claimed that he would not develop the site as a $ 21 million charity donation.

  • Ominous consultant fees

    regularly devoured

    around a fifth of the income from his projects.

    For example, an unnamed expert for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver collected fees of $ 747,6222 - coincidentally, this corresponds to exactly the amount that daughter Ivanka Trump declared as income from her consulting company.

  • Trump's golf clubs

    appear to be bottomless holes: According to the newspaper, he has accumulated losses of over $ 300 million since 2000.

    The largest of the resorts, Trump National Doral Miami, turned out to be a financial failure.

    It was only after a wave of outrage that the president allowed himself to be dissuaded from holding the G7 summit there this year.

    But his luxury hotel in Washington, which has become the go-to place for lobbyists and partisans, is making millions lousy.

  • A consolation for him: In his

    luxury relegation Mar-a-Lago

    , profits shot up after he had declared his candidacy.

    Admission fee income rose from $ 664,000 in 2014 to just under $ 6 million in 2016, before Trump then doubled the membership fee.

Its financiers are likely to be particularly excited about the outcome of the presidential election.

According to the newspaper, he is personally liable for $ 421 million in debt.

Most of this will be due in the next four years.

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Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-09-28

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