Page 40 - Deductions News Today

Refund claimed. as we dig into the tax returns, one of the most interesting lines of inquiry is going to be on charitable donations. we see some major years of donations from donald trump, hundreds of thousands of dollars, a million dollars there. remember in 2016, there was great reporting from "the washington post" about claimed tax deductions, claimed charitable deductions that donald trump was claiming to have made at the time that could not be substantiated. i think reporters are going to b...

There will be republicans who are running against him who may look at some of the things that are inside these returns and determine that they are good political ammunition. if theres an inability to show the charitable deductions or authentically charitable and the amounts suggested, thats something ab opponent will look into attacking trump on that. but youre right from the broader per sective. most people made up their minds about whether hes the businessman he says he is and whether or not h...

The table. lets now go to david. youve covered donald trump for a long time. what are you hoping to learn from these returns. >> we know from the congressional report and the returns back this up, that in -- 26 times during the years he was a candidate or president, donald reported he had businesses with no revenue, zero revenue, but he took hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses. thats important because in 1984 he did this. it resulted in two tax trials at his request and judges ruled in ...

Thats just not plausible. but if it were, he would have records to prove it. so i dont believe he can prove that hes eligible for all these losses that he then used to lower the taxes to. >> all right. margaret, now to you on the political side of things. minutes ago, the republicans have sent out a dissent pointing out democrats did not need to release trumps returns to change the problems with the presidential audit program. we talked about the fact that he had not initially been audited as is...

Big part of the problem with the trump internal revenue service to investigate thoroughly. we have about as many questions as answers. what we know from a new york times investigation is, that in 2009, he claimed a loss of $700 million. apparently this was associated with his failed atlantic city casinos. he continued to carry that along apparently, and at the beginning of 2015 he was still claiming a loss of $105 million. by using creative losses, credits and deductions that were never thorough...

Reporting $30 million in earnings but then also $60 million in losses. this is something that has to be investigated in terms of the rack ra si of the net carryover losses. but the other thing that struck me was how much ma mip lags there was in terms his deductions. he had so many questionable deductions that the joint committee on taxation pointed out that should have been investigated. for instance, the charitable deduction of some conservation easement, he claimed $21 million in deductions. ...

No audit the first two years at least. mr. trump, who ran partly on being a successful business man, a bunch of expenses filed at charitable donations let me bring in jonathan allen and former u.s. attorney, harry litman talk through the expectations once the full litany of tax documents are dropped. >> its good you used the term, full litany. theres going to be a tremendous volume that the ways and means committee drops on us probably sometime this week theyre running out of time before the end...

If somebody pays only $750 in taxes, and if there are not supporting documents for the deductions taken, and the average american says i give a big percentage of my income every year is the irs, as it is currently configured and is it staffed capable of handling these fairness issues? >> fairness is a huge issue right now. over the last decade, republicans have starved the irs of the resources it needs. as the result, the tax auditors of auditing people have declined by 30%, and the actual audit...

We got a summary of the red flags in trump taxes that should have been followed up on, such as claiming mammoth business losses, and possibly claiming as business deductions, things that should have been just personal expenses loans to his kids, that really should have been possibly gifts. therefore he should have paid taxes on those gifts rather than deducting the interest from those loans. also, charitable deductions, such as conservation easements on his properties for which he did not provid...

Deferring income, why? we want to lower the taxable income. there were some things you can do. first of all, maximize your contribution to your retirement plan and specifically iras. you can put in $6,000 or if 50 and above, $7,000. also get a 401(k) and take advantage of that, especially because many employers will match your contribution. recall that to cofor her. so you want to take advantage of that. next, a lot of people in the economy getting 1099s. that means you are self-employed. so the...