[On Trump and Taxes
Oh my, the
breathless NYT reports,
after aiding and abetting breaking the law by releasing part of a NY state tax return that was
stolen (if it's a true copy) from Trump.
The return showed a roughly $900 million net loss one year.
This, the
Times reports, means that Trump may not have paid any federal (or state) taxes for many years.
To which I say:
So what?
Let me remind you that the way you generate a net operating loss (NOL)
is by losing money. In this case (if the return is factual) Trump lost a
lot of money. The tax code allows you to reduce your tax liability when you lose money until your operating income reaches zero (and I remind you, the last 10 to 30 grand of it has already reached a zero payment liability, so you in fact "throw away" that amount worth of tax "benefit" right up front)
but you cannot get a refund on previous taxes paid as you accumulated that capital when you take a loss. This is similar but not identical to capital loss treatment.
What happens with a capital loss is that the loss is
rolled forward and you may take up to $3,000 a year against
future income until it is exhausted,
and you may also offset it dollar-for-dollar against future profits (capital gains.) A NOL also can used to "look back" for up to 3 years; which way you wish to go with that will depend on both the tax rates involved and your expected future plans (if the business is shut down then the choice is obvious, but if not it's quite a bit more complex.)
There's nothing wrong with this. You lost
actual money to generate the NOL in the first place.
That ability to use it to offset gains isn't "ripping off the government" or "ripping off poor people"
since the loss actually happened and in fact you get screwed when you take a NOL and use it to offset future profits because you are forced to consume that loss with inflated dollars in future years, but you cannot adjust the NOL for inflation!
I have
personally had both NOL and capital losses in the past and so have
millions of others. There's not only nothing wrong with it
it is in fact only a partial recapture against a real loss you already suffered.
Let's say that I make a bad investment and lose $500,000. My income that year from investments was $100,000, but I lost half a million in capital. It's gone --
I really lost it -- and the law says that the loss must be
crystallized, not on paper, for it to count (in other words I had to have closed the position.)
Ok, so I have a NET -$400,000 from investments this year. I can only take $3,000 of that against my
ordinary income; that is, if I had $50,000 worth of W2 income (from a job) the law says I
cannot use the $400,000 loss to reduce the $50,000 to zero -- only to $47,000. I can continue to take that $3,000 (yes, it's that tiny!) every year forever until it's consumed,
but if I have an investment gain in future years the remainder of the NOL carries forward and is an offset on that gain dollar-for-dollar until it is "used up."
Anyone who invests has, at some time, probably had one of those capital losses. If you have ever run a business and had a losing year you have had NOLs. There is nothing evil, wrong, duplicitous or anything of the sort about taking and using them in future years as they only are usable when you regain, through your hard work, the capital you previously lost and at the time you previously gained it in the first place you already paid taxes on it!
To suggest otherwise or that someone, such as Trump, is evil for having one and thus paying no tax in future years until it was/is consumed is outrageous. Such a suggestion is equivalent to demanding that someone pay taxes on something that has been lost or stolen from them and any politician or media outlet that implies or states same ought to be run out of town on a rail.
Why? Because it is equivalent to demanding "
heads I win, tails you lose". To demand that someone pay taxes when they make money
but when they lose money they cannot offset that loss against future gains means that you're now obligated to pay when you win
and also in effect you are obligated to pay
when you lose (irrespective of the reason) as well, because an actual net operating loss destroys part of your capital base!
Trump, if this return is accurate, did what
every single company and individual taxpayer with investments does when there is a net loss. There is not only nothing wrong with it
the tax code already penalizes you for losses because you cannot offset them dollar-for-dollar against current wage income; you can only take the $3,000/year for capital losses and
zero for business net operating losses. Since both losses are in fact
destroyed capital (from your point of view) you
should be able to deduct them fully against AGI, but that's not how the law works -- you can only deduct them against future business or investment (e.g. net operating) gains.
That is
not an abuse of the tax code. What
is an abuse of the tax code is to "donate" money to a "charity" (
your own family foundation), radically reducing your income (and thus tax liability)
that you control and which then turns around and spends nearly none of the donated funds on actual charitable services; rather, nearly all of those funds are used to pay salaries and travel (effectively living expenses and high-on-the-hog living expenses at that!) for your family members and their friends. That is legal but it's slimy as hell
and that is what the Clintons have in fact done since leaving the White House.
The NY Times is a hack outfit -- not only did they run a story predicated on a criminal act
they are trying to spin something that is not only lawful but every person who either runs a small business or invests does as a matter of course and is perfectly ethical, legal and in fact already occurs under mandated-by-law disadvantage that accrues to someone who has this happen, including Trump, in the tax code!
On Trump and Taxes