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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe Haven't Seen Trump's Taxes Yet, but It's Clear the IRS Failed America
We Havent Seen Trumps Taxes Yet, but Its Clear the IRS Failed America
DO BETTER
The IRS is required to conduct audits of the president and vice president while they are in officebut Trump apparently got a pass.
Shan Wu
Updated Dec. 22, 2022 6:21AM ET / Published Dec. 21, 2022 11:40PM ET
The quest for Donald Trumps taxes is finally over and whatever secrets Trump fought for years to conceal will soon be revealed for all to see. But one fact is already clear: The IRS botched its job.
snip//
Perhaps this should not have been surprising given that Trumps Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was the first Treasury Secretary to refuse to turn over tax information in response to a congressional request and when Congress sued to obtain compliance a Trump-appointed judgeTrevor McFaddendelayed ruling on the case until after Trump had left office.
But it surely must be stunning to most Americans that among the reasons cited by IRS officials for their failure to follow policy was that they were apparently intimidated by the complexities of Trumps taxes. In an internal memo, the agency seemed to whine about the return having about 400 flow-through returns and since some of these are tiered a total of 500 flow-through returnswhich meant that to do a thorough review of these returns we would need a team much larger than the current team.
A flow-through entity is one in which the income that comes into the business passes onto the owner and is commonly used to reduce taxation.
In sum, the IRS rewarded Trumps complex business structures by throwing their hands up at the prospect of having to dig into all those hundreds of records. Excuse me, but I thought that was what IRS agents liked to do?
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-havent-seen-trumps-taxes-yet-but-its-clear-the-irs-failed-america?ref=home
gab13by13
(24,099 posts)If the Treasury Secretary and the IRS broke the law DOJ can hold them accountable.
Right now the IRS Office of Inspector general is vacant, WHY? Right now, the IRS Commissioner is Acting, not confirmed. WHY?
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)It's not law. It's department policy. So there will be nothing other than a bit of public tongue lashing. And newflash, the IRS have failed the public for a very VERY long time.
Tree Lady
(11,979 posts)And his people there. Didn't we hear he had some democrats audited?
maxsolomon
(34,595 posts)He had them audited.
Meowmee
(5,185 posts)For tax fraud years ago. Obviously he was paying people off for years.
gab13by13
(24,099 posts)Trump can be arrested today for tax fraud, what is stopping DOJ?
Allen Weisselberg took the fall for Trump in the Trump.org trial. Prosecutors could have gone after Weisselberg harder.
All true. I dont know but its not looking good.,
spanone
(137,291 posts)mchill
(1,049 posts)Wasnt he donating it to Veterans?
spooky3
(35,618 posts)As a charitable contribution on Schedule A.
But who knows if he actually did?
mchill
(1,049 posts)I dont have exact amountsread his wages from a summary of types of income he received. Before 2017, wages were basically none, then they popped up to about $380,000 for the next 3-4 years. That would likely be his AGI POTUS salary.
spooky3
(35,618 posts)emulatorloo
(45,487 posts)lie about the Mueller report.
Bev54
(11,468 posts)appointee at the head. Those two need to go to prison along with Trump. All these aholes that flouted the rules, norms and especially laws need to be rounded up, none should be left out.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)Did the IRS flout regarding Trumps taxes? And not going by the 'rules" what punishment will/should that bring?
Bev54
(11,468 posts)Justice matters.
(7,360 posts)The Senate Finance Committee should get the ball rolling and propose legislation on that, then challenge the repuke's House to pass it.
We know they probably won't so let's hang it on their neck for the 2024 election.
BumRushDaShow
(138,394 posts)which should trigger a Treasury Department OIG investigation -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3010582
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3010608
I expect with the revelations the past couple days, someone in Congress may end up calling for a GAO audit as well, even with federal law requiring them to do annual audits of the IRS, their financial transactions, and adherence to following their internal processes. Their last published audit was November 2021 (the latest hasn't been published yet but am wondering in light of what happened with this "tax audit-gate" issue, whether they will need to look deeper and/or modify their previous reports).
If they are found to have done this to cover up criminal activity, well then there are statutes associated with that.
lindysalsagal
(21,963 posts)person and rescind the pension. At the very least.
Stuart G
(38,726 posts)...I think we have only seen a small part of the whole..................but I could be wrong...
Pepsidog
(6,291 posts)KPN
(15,981 posts)corporations to benefit themselves at a cost to the middle class and poor.
Tanuki
(15,133 posts)to lobby and bribe their way into maintaining their sweet carried interest tax dodge, that screws over all other taxpayers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/09/30/lobbying-kept-carried-interest-out-of-bidens-tax-plan-bernstein-says.html
"Fierce lobbying by the private equity industry is the reason the carried interest tax rate is not included in President Joe Biden's planned tax hikes, top White House economist Jared Bernstein told CNBC on Thursday.
Biden and congressional Democrats are hoping to pass a sprawling budget, much of which is paid for with revenue from a laundry list of tax changes, including higher rates for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
...
"This is such a glaring privileged position for a certain group of people over just about everybody else," said Sorkin. "For those that look at the tax policy as a part of a democracy, where people have to believe in it, they say, 'This makes no sense.'"
...
Indeed, last year 4,108 individual lobbyists formally registered to lobby Congress and the Executive Branch on the issue of taxes, according to the Open Secrets lobbying database. Hundreds more likely worked to influence federal tax policy on behalf of clients but did not formally register as lobbyists.
For private equity firms, keeping their tax rate at the lower capital gains level is their top priority in Washington and has been for years.
The private equity industry has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists to fight any effort to change how it is taxed. And so far, the plan appears to be working.
The industry has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to congressional campaigns, $600 million total over the past decade, according to a New York Times analysis earlier this year....(more)
paleotn
(18,803 posts)No worries since my taxes are simple by design, driven by my risk averse nature, but it's the principle in my mind. Guess I don't rate.
gulliver
(13,303 posts)Such a lucky guy!
Stuart G
(38,726 posts)..........(and soon is soon...no inside information, just speculation on my part)
twodogsbarking
(11,748 posts)a new system put in place. Who could argue that the current system works.
Joinfortmill
(15,855 posts)Maeve
(42,780 posts)Grow up and do your job or find something else.
patphil
(6,782 posts)It becomes an expensive and time consuming task to do a proper audit. So very few in-depth audits were done for these people.
Of course Trump de-funded the IRS to the point that it was essentially impossible. He also put one of his corrupt sycophants at the head of the IRS to insure no audit of his businesses would be done.
And then he insisted he was under audit, when he wasn't.
I hope the IRS does it's job now, and the former head is held criminally liable for his failure to comply with the law. It's about time this shit was dealt with.
LaMouffette
(2,200 posts)This news came out in 2020. I don't know why more wasn't made of it at the time. Surely, that IRS chief should have been called in to testify about why Trump was not audited.
Here's part of a 2020 Forbes article about it:
The commissioner of the IRSwho is responsible for releasing President Trump's tax returns to Congressowns two rental properties at the Trump International Waikiki that he profits off of while in office, according to new documents obtained by a watchdog group in Washington, raising new questions about his withholding of Trumps tax returns as the president goes to court to keep them hidden.
Commissioner Charles Rettigs personal financial disclosures for the past two years, analyzed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, show that the IRS commissioner earns $100,000-200,000 per year from his properties at the Trump-branded Hawaii resort, which he purchased in 2006 before the hotel officially opened.
The Trump Waikiki website notes that the hotel was not developed by the Trump Organizationthe owner licenses the Trump brand namebut Hawaii News Now reported in 2016 that the now-president received 10% of all pre-sales of units at the property, and Trump has made a promotional visit to the hotel while in office.
Rettig, who failed to disclose his connection to the Trump property when first appointed, told House lawmakers in 2019 that it was ultimately his decisionunder the supervision of Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchinwhether or not to turn over Trumps federal tax returns to Congress, as House Democrats have requested.
Rettig denied the request for Trumps tax documents in May 2019, with Mnuchin telling lawmakers that their subpoena for the presidents tax returns lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.
House Democrats legal challenge to obtain Trumps tax returns was sent back to a lower court by the Supreme Court, and is unlikely to be decided before the November election.
The IRS Commissioner has a vested interest in the success of the Trump brandand of preventing anything that could damage it, CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] said in a post revealing the Rettig documents, speculating that it could be toxic for the value of Rettigs property if a bombshell in [Trumps] tax returns were released.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/09/01/irs-chief-makes-more-than-100000-per-year-off-trump-property-documents-show/?sh=600061587488
Hope22
(2,418 posts)jaxexpat
(7,464 posts)Republicans hate bean counters.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,798 posts)Senate Republicans are pointing to a $275 million reduction to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) annual appropriations as a win in their end-of-year negotiations on the omnibus spending package.
Republican leaders are highlighting the reduction in IRS funding at a time when conservatives are calling for fellow Republican lawmakers to punt major spending decisions into next year so the incoming GOP majority in the House can block funding to hire 87,000 new IRS agents.
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, pointed out that the $12.32 billion provided for the IRS in the omnibus is $275 million less than what Congress enacted for fiscal 2022.
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The only thing the GQP will increase is the military budget. A $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill released by Senate Appropriations Committee leaders Tuesday morning calls for a 10 percent increase in fiscal year 2023 defense spending to $858 billion from fiscal 2022 figures.
Surprised? Me neither.
Quakerfriend
(5,553 posts)taxes.
And, the IRS being under the control of the Treasury-
I would so love to see Mnuchin suffer some consequences for this.
republianmushroom
(16,628 posts)botch would infer that they screwed up the audits. the act eliminated those audits.
23 months and counting
TomCADem
(17,592 posts)Indeed, perhaps Republicans can turn this around and argue that the IRS should be abolished in its entirety.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Not a single IRS Church investigation since then thanks to Congressional and Judicial Republicans, utilizing a number of methods including defunding.