The Released Trump Tax Returns - Part 1

There are a few things that leapt off the page at me as I first skimmed the six years of returns.

First was the fact that Donald Trump apparently is NOT claiming his Social Security benefits. You reach the maximum benefit when you turn 70. I have two clients who did not file to claim their Social Security benefits when they turned 70. Both were contacted at the age of 72 by the Social Security Adminstration and could only recover six months of back benefits.

Donald Trump turned 70 in June of 2016. Why isn't he drawing those benefits?

***

Then I noticed that when they redacted the information on Trump's Form 8938, they also redacted the balances of his foreign bank accounts. Was that an oversight, intentional, or just a mistake?

***
Donald Trump's 2015 return is 539 pages. Just the personal income tax return for Melania and he.

Donald Trump's 2015 return has more than 25 Schedule C's, for 25 separate LLCs. Their combined net profit (gross receipts less returns and allowances; less deductible expenses) are nearly -$600,000. Not exactly a demonstration of business expertise.

His 2015 personal income tax returns show $134,442 in cash contributions to charity. All of which were made by his various businesses. He apparently did not write a single check to charity from his personal funds.

Finally, he paid no ordinary income tax in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020. Here is a breakdown:

More to come.

$6.87

Why that number? It illustrates a serious problem that is costing all of us money, unnecessarily. The initial return I filed showed that I owed $204.00 which I paid via direct debit from my bank account. Then I filed the amended return, in March of 2022. The direct debit was still active and I paid the corrected balance of $198 by direct debit. That left me with a $204 credit balance. The credit showed on my tax account transcript as far back as June. I was not issued my refund until six months later. As a result, I was paid $6.87 in interest because of the protracted delay.

The interest is mandated by law. The problem is the IRS has been decimated by Congress over the last two decades.

The Congress of the United States chose to fund the IRS so that they had thier enforcement staffing cut by over 15,000 people between 2010 and 2021. They did not increase funding when they tasked the IRS with processing stimulus checks in addition to their regular duties. What was the result of those staffing cuts?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued a report that showed the "Tax Gap" was $441 billion per year between 2011 and 2013. What is the Tax Gap? That is the amount of income tax that is not paid voluntarily and on time. The gap has only grown since then. Every additional dollar allocated to IRS funding will generate at least two dollars in tax revenue.

As a tax professional, it is my job to ensure that my clients pay the lowest amount of tax while stayng in compliance with the law. That doesn't mean I want to see cuts in IRS funding. I hate having to spend hours dialing the IRS to reach a live person. I hate seeing my client's having to wait 8 or 9 months for a refund from an amended return. These issues could be handled more efficiently if Congress would properly fund the IRS.

Goodness knows that there's enough waste in government spending. What moron decided it was a good idea to spend $118,971 on whether or not Thanos can snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Glove.

Or when ICE spent $17 million on hotel rooms for illegal immigrants that went unused. And, if we can believe the Rand Paul Festivus report on waste, $1,7 billion to maintain 77,000 empty federal buildings. $1.7 billion in added funding to the IRS would generate at least $3.4 billion in tax revenue.

When I was still in the Air Force and stationed at a very small base in South Korea, we had a saying: "We've done so much with so little for so long, they probabl expect us to be able to do everything with nothing."