The New York Times has gotten Donald Trump's income tax filings for the past maybe decade. Guess what? He has paid no taxes in several of those years, and paid little in others. How did he do this? Short answer: his business expenses or losses equalled or exceeded his income. What isn't there? Illegality.
We have written repeatedly that raising taxes on the rich produces little actual revenue. If you don't take my word for that, do a search of COTTonLINE for "tax avoidance."
How is this the case? The truly wealthy hire very skilled, high priced CPAs and tax lawyers to help them arrange their assets and income streams in ways that are more-or-less legally sheltered from taxes, or taxed at a much lower rate.
Much of what you spend after-tax dollars to buy, the wealthy arrange to have identified as before-tax business expenses which become a deduction from taxable income.
The wealthy, who make most of the substantial campaign contributions, also lobby Congress for loopholes which the above experts subsequently utilize. And sometimes the rich take deductions which are questionable, and pay the penalties if caught in an audit, at which the experts represent them.
Bottom line: tax-wise, Trump behaves like a normal wealthy guy, and the fees for the above-noted experts are part of his deductible "business expenses." If you think all of this is an abuse, blame Congress which makes the rules the IRS enforces. Trump and, for that matter, Bloomberg take full advantage of those rules.
Echoing Officer Murphy, the old B-school prof advises, "Move along folks, there's nothing to see here."
