Democrats last week made available six years' worth of former President Trump's tax returns as part of reports on the presidential audit programme, revealing that the previous leader wasn't subject to routine IRS audits and that he was consistently reporting significant business losses.
Trump's real tax returns for the years 2015 through 2020 will be made public on Friday, after Democrats claimed they needed more time to redact the documents and delete sensitive information.
Tax professionals don't anticipate significant surprises from the raw returns, which were detailed in studies from the partisan Joint Committee on Taxation and the Democratic-controlled Ways and Means Committee (JCT). However, the more comprehensive records may provide extra information on pertinent topics pertaining to Trump's enterprises and his professional life.
Trump's defeats in 2020 were they renewed?
Trump reported significant losses every year, typically in the tens of millions of dollars, offsetting his gains and lowering the amount of taxes he owed — and occasionally wiping out his tax due entirely, as in 2020. This was disclosed by the JCT analysis on Trump's taxes.
The losses from 2015 to 2018 were really only parts of a larger $105 million loss that was itself a piece of a $700 million loss that was split up and reported over various years.
For those in the real estate development industry who are permitted to declare routine depreciation costs as losses, these broken-up losses are standard accounting techniques.
Trump declared a positive income in 2019 and paid his taxes, but in 2020, he claimed to have lost money once more, which caused some to believe.
Trump declared a profit in 2019 and paid his taxes, but in 2020 he said he lost money again, leading some experts to speculate that his losses in that year went beyond clever accounting and represented actually failing enterprises.
"Net operating losses carried forward did not account for Trump's 2020 losses. Instead, I believe that Trump's losses in 2020 were genuine and largely the result of the commercial losses he experienced at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. And for that reason, he didn't pay any taxes in 2020, according to Steve Rosenthal of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, who wrote to The Hill in an email.
"Yes, Trump did experience significant losses in 2009, including a $700 million loss from his so-called "abandonment" of a partnership investment, some of which he carried over into 2010."
Trump's 2020 tax return may provide more insight into whether he avoided paying taxes that year due to accepted accounting principles or failing enterprises.
Information on international organisations and bank accounts
One of the main themes of Trump's presidency was his foreign connections, particularly the FBI investigation into his ties to Russia.
Any foreign bank accounts mentioned in Trump's tax returns or payments made to foreign organisations will undoubtedly be scrutinized and may reveal more information about Trump's connections abroad.
“I’m going to be looking for things like foreign ownership, foreign accounts, foreign ownership of Trump businesses, payments to foreigners,” Rosenthal said. “There’s bound to be some items that may yet pop out to external reviewers that [the JCT] missed.”
In an interview, retired CIA agent and journalist Frank Snepp stated: "Those of us who are interested in his relationship with Russia will be looking for any type of evidence of what Don [Trump] Jr. indicated in 2008 that Trump interests had received much of their money from Russian sources.
A forensic analyst would be well advised to seek for anything connected to the emoluments provision, he added. "Obviously we're not going to find in the tax returns a line that reads 'Russian Assets'," he said.
Trump oversaw significant shifts in the Middle East's political landscape as well, including the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel improve relations with a number of Arab countries.
Everyone who is concerned about whether or not he received any funding from Saudi Arabia will be on the lookout for signs of that kind of foreign involvement, according to Snepp.
The breakdown of Trump's businesses' profitability
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee also received the tax returns for eight of Trump's businesses in addition to his personal taxes. Even while that only represents a small portion of Trump's almost 500 business organisations, knowing which ones contributed most to his losses will provide more light on his tax evasion and general business methods.
The eight business returns are divided into three groups, including two high-level holding companies, trademark LLCs, and golf clubs.
"Those two superior organisations are at the very top of Trump's LLC hierarchy. The numbers all roll into those, and I’d like to see some aggregate numbers there,” Rosenthal said.
The JCT report claims that an IRS agent working on Trump's 2018 business tax returns discovered a number of questionable losses that Trump had declared.
The agent made a number of "Large Unusual Questionable Items" (or "LUQs") for the year 2018, including a $12.1 million loss from the Trump Corporation. DJT Holdings suffered a loss of $55.2 million, according to the JCT report.
A "history of contentious talks between Mr. Trump's attorneys and IRS officials" was also addressed in the report.
Trump's trademark LLCs, in contrast to his real estate firms, are anticipated to be successful ventures thanks to the recognition he garnered during his reality television stint on NBC's "The Apprentice."
