{"id":131718,"date":"2016-10-03T10:57:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T16:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/on-the-not-paying-of-taxes.html"},"modified":"2016-10-03T10:57:22","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T16:57:22","slug":"on-the-not-paying-of-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/on-the-not-paying-of-taxes.html","title":{"rendered":"On the Not Paying of Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As anyone who has stood within a 100 yards of my posting for the last several months knows, I detest the idea of Donald Trump being president, both on a policy basis and because I think the man is an active danger.[1]<\/p>\n

That said, the current brouhaha over his not paying taxes is, to my mind, a bit misfocused.<\/p>\n

What appears to be the case (based on a set of mid-90s state tax return cover pages) is that Donald Trump declared a business loss of close to a billion dollars, and, under the tax laws, he was able to spread that loss out to cover federal taxes he paid \/ would pay over a period of 18 years, most likely meaning he was relieved of his federal tax burden in that period.<\/p>\n

While it's a viscerally repellent move, it's hard for me to condemn Trump's action per se,<\/i> because he acted fully within the law in doing so. This should be more of an issue with the politicians (of both parties) that enabled the law that made this possible, spreading certain types of business losses out against multiple years of tax liability.[2] Assuming that Trump's maneuvers were legal, Trump is correct — it is, in fact, "smart," to take advantage of the law in this way. The right to legally minimize taxes is well-established in American jurisprudence; as Justice Sutherland put it in 1935:_<\/p>\n

'The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Here's what's not<\/i> "smart," and where the focus should be:<\/p>\n

1. Losing nearly a billion dollars in the first place. Even with his subsequent tax exemption, it's still a massive financial lost, on a series of mismanaged deals, from a guy who promises to bring his business acumen to the service of the United States.<\/p>\n

2. Bragging about it as being smart. Because you only brag about losing money and not paying taxes because of it if you are obsessed with being seen<\/i> as smart. And that speaks to, well, a lot of insecurity.<\/p>\n

(It's also guaranteed to torque people off, though the Trump Faithful seem to see it less as ducking paying for essential services, as "sticking it to those in power," which, ironically, they see a multi-millionaire real estate speculator as not being one of.) <\/p>\n

3. Declaring a close-to-a-billion-dollar loss, because that's going to attract the attention of the IRS on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

4. This particular loss would have been distributable up through 2013, I believe. So none of this necessarily speaks to Trump's taxes the past few years. Has he found another financial disaster to duck behind? Is he making money hand over fist from some source or another? Is he giving away all his income to the poor? Is he being paid off by Vladimir Putin? We don't know — and the current kerfuffle has obscured that we don't have recent information (or, really, any information about his other taxes, income, donations, etc., from even that 18 year period, other than that he was likely able to avoid paying federal income tax).<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Maybe that's why these forms were leaked. Maybe that's the "smart" thing going on.<\/p>\n

—-<\/del><\/p>\n

[1] I still think Ted Cruz was\/is\/will be a greater danger, but we can save that conversation for 2019.<\/p>\n

[2] Whether this is a good policy, or was enacted for sound, defensible reasons, is a different discussion. It is the law of the land.<\/p>\n

[3] Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465, 469 (1935)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As anyone who has stood within a 100 yards of my posting for the last several months knows, I detest the idea of Donald Trump being president, both on a policy basis and because I think the man is an active danger.[1] That said, the current brouhaha over his not paying taxes is, to my … Continue reading “On the Not Paying of Taxes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1_lb0JS-z4w4hFm--FGssnWQ5B15D.jpegimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131708,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/02\/donald-trump-master-of-losing-gob-tons-of-money.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":0},"title":"Donald Trump: Master of Losing Gob-Tons of Money","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Oct-16 1:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So one thing that's been \"hidden\" in Trump's tax returns (which themselves have been hidden, but apparently someone has passed a 1995 return on to the New York Times) is that Trump lost such an amazing amount of money for that year, nearly a billion dollars, that he was able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131650,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/on-the-paying-of-taxes-as-a-presidential-hopeful.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":1},"title":"On the Paying of Taxes, as a Presidential Hopeful","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Sep-16 11:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"1. It is well established in American law and culture that nobody is required to pay more taxes than they must under the law. That's being (as Donald himself put it) \"smart.\" I can't fault Trump for that.2. Folk who pay no taxes at tax time do so because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131553,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/15\/trumps-taxes-are-far-too-confusing-for-most-of-us-mere-mortals.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":2},"title":"Trump's taxes are far too confusing for most of us mere mortals","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Sep-16 10:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump has tried to claim that he can't release his tax records because he is being audited by the IRS. Which, for the record, doesn't forbid the release of tax records.Donald Trump, Jr., has a new explanation: Trump's tax returns are so YUUGLELY complicated that it would just be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133353,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/26\/on-the-the-trump-tax-plan.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":3},"title":"On the The Trump Tax Plan","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Apr-17 2:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Nobody likes taxes, whether or not they pay for our living in \"a civilized society.\" I mean, I didn't particularly care for cutting a check for income tax this year, nor the deductions that come out of paychecks.That said, taxes are a necessary thing, and so when someone promises to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/trump%2Btax%2Bplan.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132926,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/24\/tariffs-and-taxes-and-trade-theyre-complicated.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":4},"title":"Tariffs and Taxes and Trade. They're Complicated","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Feb-17 8:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Slap a tax on imports? Remove taxes on exports? Creating jobs and improving the economy look like they will be a bit more complicated than that, even if the politics of making it happen were trivial.But these kinds of causes and effects also take time. Which means Trump can make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137127,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/11\/another-really-great-high-economic-number-for-donald-trump-and-the-gop.html","url_meta":{"origin":131718,"position":5},"title":"Another really great high economic number for Donald Trump and the GOP!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Sep-18 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, wait. They don't seem to be touting how incredibly cool it is that the deficit grew 32% to $895 billion, even during such \"incredible\" economic times. (Emphasis mine). The nonpartisan CBO reported that the central drivers of the increasing deficit were the Republican tax law and the bipartisan agreement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}