A brand new scandal revealed over the weekend has prompted political analysts to begin referring to Donald Trump as ‘Double-Dip-Donald.’
Top News Today :
After losing money on a 92-story condo/hotel tower he built along the Chicago River back in the early 2000s, it appears Donald Trump reported the loss on his income tax returns twice — effectively “double-dipping” and reaping Internal Revenue Service benefits on 2 separate occasions. The dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks now means that Double-Dip-Donald is on the hook for a whopping $100 million tax penalty.
Regrettably (for him), a combination of cost overruns and the bad luck of opening during the Great Recession caused Trump to lose his shirt over the Chicago building. However, in living up to his reputation of being a conniving charlatan, Double-Dip-Donald found a cheat code by writing off the same losses twice.
According to a scathing report from The New York Times and ProPublica, Trump claimed the Chicago condo-hotel tower met the tax code definition of “worthless” and submitted the first write-off on his 2008 tax return. In fact, he reported losses as high as $651 million for the year.
However, in 2010, Trump decided he needed to find a way to extract further cash benefits from the failed Chicago project. So, he shifted his ownership of the Chicago tower into a new partnership, then used the shift to declare $168 million in additional losses over the next decade.
On paper, it appeared as 2 different losses. However, because he controlled both companies, the scam was the equivalent of moving coins from one pocket to another.
Now that the Double-Dip-Donald hustle has been made public, The Times and ProPublica are both reporting that the IRS is seeking a revised tax bill of more than $100 million, PLUS interest and potential penalties.
“I think he ripped off the tax system,” said Walter Schwidetzky, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who’s also an expert on partnership taxation.
Including that debt in the deduction was “just not right,” said Monte Jackel, an IRS veteran who often publishes analyses of partnership tax issues.
Needless to say and as expected, Double-Dip-Donald is crying foul.
“This matter was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office,” Trump’s son Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said on Saturday in a statement. “We are confident in our position, which is supported by opinion letters from various tax experts, including the former general counsel of the IRS.”
With all of his current legal woes, including millions owed to New York State and mounting financial debt from multiple court cases, a $100 million tax bill from the IRS — not including interest and penalties — could bankrupt Double-Dip-Donald for good.
Stay tuned…
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Double-Dip-Donald and the $100 million IRS bill.
They are really going hard for Trumps money. I still want to see how he is going to pay New York. Now this comes up. He is going to be bankrupt if this keeps up.