Good day all. Since it’s October and the Presidential election is about a month away, it’s time for the traditional “October Surprises”. This one came courtesy of the New York times and is their attempt to throw the election to their mistress, Hillary Clinton.
This just broke yesterday and we’re still learning things about it. Basically, the Times allegedly got their hands on Trump’s 1995 tax returns and are trumpeting that Trump paid no income taxes. From what I’ve been reading, it looks like he took a near billion dollar loss, which would be allowed under the tax code of the time, (Under President William Jefferson “Serial rapist” Clinton). The story was printed in time for the Sunday Morning talk shows to use it to attack Donald Trump.
Trump didn’t just do the standard Republican thing and freeze up, deny and try and justify anything. He is using this to show people just how bad the tax laws are. He didn’t break the law, he used it to minimize his taxes, just as anyone with half a brain would do. Needless to say, the Communists Democrats and their propaganda arm the Main Stream Media are salivating at using these documents. According to Fox News:
The Times reported that the documents were mailed to one of its reporters last month. The return address indicated that they had been sent from Trump Tower in New York City. The paper said it had confirmed the returns’ accuracy with Trump’s then-accountant.
“This is legit,” Jack Mitnick, whose name appears as Trump’s tax preparer of the filings, told the newspaper.
And now we’re going to see some real problems for the New York Times.
The Trump campaign issued a statement late Saturday saying the documents had been “illegally obtained” and called The Times “an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests.”
“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the statement went on. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.”
I’m not up on the exact laws broken here, but there are a number of them. According to the Law site at Cornell University:
26 U.S. Code § 6103 – Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information
(a) General ruleReturns and return information shall be confidential, and except as authorized by this title—
(1) no officer or employee of the United States,
(2) no officer or employee of any State, any local law enforcement agency receiving information under subsection (i)(1)(C) or (7)(A), any local child support enforcement agency, or any local agency administering a program listed in subsection (l)(7)(D) who has or had access to returns or return information under this section or section 6104(c), and
(3) no other person (or officer or employee thereof) who has or had access to returns or return information under subsection (e)(1)(D)(iii), subsection (k)(10), paragraph (6), (10), (12), (16), (19), (20), or (21) of subsection (l), paragraph (2) or (4)(B) of subsection (m), or subsection (n),
shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee or otherwise or under the provisions of this section. For purposes of this subsection, the term “officer or employee” includes a former officer or employee.
The law is rather lengthy and does have the usual legalistic gobbledy gook in it, but there is one section I’ve found that the New York Slimes thinks might cover them.
(5) Disclosure by whistleblower
Any person who otherwise has or had access to any return or return information under this section may disclose such return or return information to a committee referred to in paragraph (1) or any individual authorized to receive or inspect information under paragraph (4)(A) if such person believes such return or return information may relate to possible misconduct, maladministration, or taxpayer abuse.
Somehow, I don’t think the New York Times is covered as an authorized group for the purposes of whistleblowing. There is no way Trump will take this lying down either. I see two things happening. First, he will talk about this particular tax circumstance, and second, he’s going to unleash the legal hounds of Hell on the New York Times. Again, I’m no legal scholar, but I think the Times could be hit with receiving stolen property at the very least. I also have no doubt whatsoever that Trump’s people will also hit them with a massive civil suit as well.
Then we have the New York Times itself. According to Forbes, that bastion of Progressive thought and responsibility didn’t pay any taxes in 2014 in spite of making a profit.
More recently, for tax year 2014, The New York Times paid no taxes and got an income tax refund of $3.5 million even though they had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in 2014. In other words, their post-tax profit was higher than their pre-tax profit. The explanation in their 2014 annual report is, “The effective tax rate for 2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations.” If you don’t think it took fancy accountants and tax lawyers to make that happen, read the statement again.
Honestly, I don’t see this hurting Trump. He has been talking about the Tax code and how broken it is, and the fact that he used all legal means to minimize his tax payments really isn’t that big a deal. Compare that with Progressive Icons like Warren Buffett and George Soros who are fighting the Internal Revenue Service over billions of dollars they owe in back taxes. I believe the word for all this is “Hypocrisy”. Will this hurt Trump? Doubtful, particularly if he simply states that he took advantage of every lawful tax break he could find. As for the New York Slimes? I think the phrase, “Nice try losers” works for them.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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