ABC News Says THIS Is What The Donald Is Hiding In His Tax Returns (VIDEO)


For the first time since 1976, a presidential candidate is refusing to release his tax returns. This is not only unprecedented, it’s incredibly surprising from a candidate so vested in accusing everyone from President Obama to Hillary Clinton of fraud and deception.

Even more surprising is the cost incurred by taxpayers because of the loopholes Trump uses to get out of paying his own taxes. For a man who claims to be running on a platform to ease the economic burden of the working class folks, he sure burdens them with his own taxes by underselling and blatantly lying on his tax returns.

ABC News laid out a vicious tale of an incredibly wealthy man who will stop at nothing to pay as few taxes as possible, a statement confirmed by Trump:

“Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump boasted during a Saturday campaign speech that he fully exploits the tax code to pay as little as possible to the government.

‘I mean, I pay as little as possible. I use every single thing in the book. And I have great people,’ the Republican presidential front-runner told supporters in Sioux Center, Iowa.”

Trump, in fact, insists it makes good business sense to exploit tax laws in order to pay as little as possible when you’re a wealthy, successful businessman. That’s just “the American way,” according to the Donald.

Here’s how he does that, says ABC News, and you can already guess who makes up the difference.

Trump wrote on a candidate disclosure form that the sprawling 147-acre private club [The Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York] bearing his name is worth ‘more than $50 million.’

But when it came time to value the property for tax purposes, his lawyers have argued that Trump National is really worth only $1.35 million. The proposed valuation has bewildered officials in the small town of Ossining, who said the new figure would cut Trump’s tax burden by 90 percent and dump that burden on everyone else.

‘Trump says he represents the little guy, but the little guy is going to have to pay his taxes for him here in Ossining,’ said Dana Levenberg, the Ossining town supervisor.

The golf club is not the only thing Trump undersells on his tax return.

‘In 1986, when Trump purchased one of the most expensive luxury yachts in the world from the Sultan of Brunei, ‘The Princess,’ he used a lease-back arrangement involving an out-of-state company to avoid having to pay $1.75 million in sales tax to the state of New Jersey for the purchase of the yacht.

The same year, Trump was one of a number of celebrities identified in a New York state investigation into a sales tax dodge by the Bulgari jewelry store on Fifth Avenue. Store officials had been accused of selling expensive items to celebrity customers and then sending an empty box to an out-of-state address so the customers would not have to pay New York sales tax. News reports from the time said Trump bought a $65,000 item. A former state prosecutor involved in the matter said Trump and others helped the state build a case against the store, which they considered the more serious violator.

When Trump struck a deal with New York City to build the Grand Hyatt Hotel, it required that his partnership team return a portion of the hotel profits to the city. But a 1989 audit found that his ownership team ‘understated its net profit’ by more than $5 million and deprived the city of its nearly $3 million in unreported proceeds. Karen Burstein, the city auditor who reviewed the Grand Hyatt financial books, said Trump approved the decision to use different accounting rules to determine the money owed to the city.

‘He cheated the city of a substantial amount of money,” Burstein told ABC News. “This wasn’t just a good business deal. This wasn’t just business thinking. This was manipulation … It was an example of extraordinary flim-flammery.'”

Let’s be perfectly clear: Donald Trump is not interested in lowering the tax burden of the average American citizen. He isn’t concerned about income inequality or the 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 99%, as long as he’s still in the 1%. He does not represent the working class, nor does he seem at all concerned about how they’ll survive under his economic plan.

The Donald is concerned about gaining even more wealth and power than he already does, and if that harms other citizens or leaves them holding the bag while he sails off in his yacht, that’s just too bad.

That is the GOP presumptive nominee for President of the United States.

See the ABC News segment below:

 

Featured image screengrab via ABC News video