美国总统每年必须接受税务审计，特朗普个税表到底藏有哪些秘密？
美国总统每年必须接受税务审计，
特朗普个税表到底藏有哪些秘密？
继民财经汇导读：本周二是美国纳税居民年度个税申报的截止日期，美国数个城市有民众公开集会要求总统特朗普公布其税务申报表。
向公众公开其个税申报表是过去40年来美国总统的惯例做法；特朗普当选后改变了这个做法，他已经多次拒绝公开其个税资料。
依据美国联邦税务局的手册要求，在水门事件之后，美国的正副总统每年都需要接受个税审计；当然这个审计相对要快速，而且审计资料是严格保密，据说是放在一个橙色的文件夹里；如果审计人员不在场的时候，这个文件是被锁在抽屉里。媒体认为，税务局每年都对正副总统的个税进行审计，是为了确保政府最高领导人也遵循国家法律，另一方面是为了保持税务部门在政治上的独立性，不受两党政治影响，避免被认为在搞选择性执法。
美国的法律并没有要求总统必须公开其纳税信息。但是，如果税务审计认为总统存在偷税的行为，那么此税务局就可以公开此等资料。另外一直情况公众可以得知总统个税信息，则是总统自己自愿公开。 白宫则认为，如果不是总统自愿，那么公开总统个税信息是属于非法的行为。不过特朗普在竞选的时候是公开承诺会在当选后公布其个税信息的，现在当选后可能是出于政治斗争的策略而不公开。
要求特朗普公布纳税信息的民众则认为，如果特朗普不公开其个税信息，那么民众犹如生活在黑暗之中，我们不知道他到底是为美国人民服务还是仅仅是为其自己谋取私利；"Without his tax returns, we're in the dark ... about whether he's operating on behalf of himself or all Americans,"
他们担心特朗普是否存在利益冲突，尤其是在特朗普拟进行的税务改革中，是否会存在其个人利益的重大冲突；他们还希望知道特朗普是否有海外银行账户，以及特朗普和俄罗斯的利益往来；特朗普的慈善捐赠金额是多少等等......
不过，在三月份的时候，白宫曾经公布过特朗普2005年个税申报资料；该年度，特朗普的总收入超过1.5亿美元，总的纳税金额约为3800万美元。
根据这个纳税表，特朗普于2005年的工资收入为100万美元，商业经营领域的收入为4200万美元 ，利息和股利收入为1000万美元，资本利得收入为3200万美元；他的主要收入是租金收入和提成费收入(royalties fee), 高达6700万美元。虽然特朗普拥有很多酒店，但是他在海外的业务主要是冠名权的提成费收入(licenses of his name)。这个总统真的会做生意。不过，他在2005年的纳税申报中，还有期初带下来的1.03亿损失，白宫说这个主要是地产业务的折旧，该损失一下就将2005年度的应纳税所得额大大减少至只有5000万美元左右。
特朗普是否会公开其纳税信息？现在美国许多地方民众在高呼，美国的主流媒体（包括CNN,洛杉矶时报等等）也都持续跟踪报道此事，
堂堂的世界唯一超级大国一把手，整天被一群大爷大妈们追着要提供个税证明，这日子过的......
以上是继民财经汇导读，接下来是歌曲欣赏*土豪可以用流量看视频）和自由阅读时间，请君随意......
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=k1311vpc066&width=500&height=375&auto=0
The president always gets audited (and the veep too)
by Jeanne Sahadi April 17, 2017
IRS audits of individuals are at their lowest level in more than a decade. But for two people in the United States,their chance of being audited is 100%.
For the U.S. president and vice president, an audit isguaranteed every year.
The practice of doing a "mandatory examination"of the presidential and vice presidential tax returns has been in the InternalRevenue Manual since the Watergate era, according to the IRS.
Both President Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew became embroiled in personal tax controversies around the same time that the Watergate scandal was unfolding. Agnew ended up resigning after admitting to tax evasion.
The process for auditing the return of the president and vice president is very precisely spelled out in the manual, including the instruction that their returns must be filed in an orange folder.
Only specified personnel may see the returns. And they must be locked in a secure drawer or cabinet whenever the appointed IRS examiner won't be present
Their audits also must be handled relatively quickly."The returns require expeditious handling at all levels to ensure prompt completion of the examinations," according to the manual.
The IRS didn't offer a formal rationale for auditing the president and vice president every year. Part of it may be to make sure the highest officers in the government are adhering to the law, tax historian Joseph Thorndike surmised.
And making the audits automatic may have been intended to bolster public confidence that the IRS will audit presidents of both parties and not let it become something the agency does at its discretion, according to tax lawyer Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.
Of course, there's no telling how rigorous the audits are.
As always, the IRS will keep all information aboutTrump's and Pence's returns and the audits of them confidential.
Unless the agency finds evidence of a tax crime such asevasion and prosecutes the case, the only way the public may learn anything of what's in Trump's and Pence's returns is if they choose to voluntarily release them, which has become a tradition for the past 40 years.
Voluntary release seems highly unlikely in PresidentTrump's case. He has frequently used the audits of his tax returns to date as an excuse not to release them publicly -- even though nothing prevents him from doing so except his personal preference.
And though he and his surrogates have said often that he would release them when the audits were complete, there's no way to independently verify that the audits of his returns from years past are still ongoing.
Nor is there any way to verify when the IRS will finish the audit of President Trump's 2016 return.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday gave anon-answer at a press briefing when asked whether Trump would authorize the IRS to confirm that he is under audit and for which years. "I think the president's view on this has been very clear," Spicer said.
CNNMoney (New York)
What we'd learn if Trump would just release his tax returns
by Jeanne Sahadi April 14, 2017
Normally by the end of tax filing season,the sitting U.S. president publicly releases his tax return for the prior year.
There's no expectation, however, that President Trumpwill do so. He's already flouted a 40-year tradition of presidential nominees releasing their tax returns, and there's been no indication since he took office that he'll start conforming now.
By law he is not required to release his tax returns.
But given his international business empire and -- untilrecently -- his unwillingness to be critical of Russia, Democrats and a small handful of Republicans have supported efforts to require him to release his returns or to pressure Congressional leaders to exercise their authority to obtain them legally.
The public has beenvocal as well. This weekend there will be more than 150 marches across 48 states and the District of Columbia to demand Trump release hisreturns.
Among their concerns: the president's foreign ties couldpose a national security risk and his potential conflicts of interest might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Without his returns, "Americans cannot know whether Mr. Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself and potentially empower our enemies," Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate FinanceCommittee, wrote in a recent opinion piece.
If Trump's returns were ever released -- how much the public would learn depends on what parts of his returns come out. For instance,the top two pages alone won't reveal his foreign ties. Even his full return --including schedules and attached forms -- may not definitively resolve concernsabout his foreign business relationships. But they could point to other information -- such as who else invests in his partnerships -- that could help answer questions.
That said, however, plenty of other details about his tax situation would be revealed, such as:
How much income he made: The top two pages of his federal Form 1040 would reveal Trump's income from general sources (salary, businessincome, investment income, rental income, etc.)
What he claimed in deductions: Trump's return wouldindicate how much he claimed in itemized deductions.
More specifically on ScheduleA and Form 8283, he would report how much money he donated to charity and whichcharities he chose.
His charitable giving is an area he bragged about during the campaign, even though a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post report did not find proof in most instances ofthe donations Trump said he made.
How much he paid in taxes: The president has often bragged about paying as little tax as possible while at the same time boastingof his great wealth. That's raised concerns that the tax code may allow some ofthe very richest Americans to pay very little.
Whether and where he has foreign bank accounts: OnSchedule B and related Form 8938, the public would learn what foreign accountsand trusts Trump has and in which countries.
Whether he paid taxes to foreign governments: If Trumpclaims a foreign tax credit, that means he paid tax to a foreign government andthat would be subtracted from his U.S. income tax liability. On Form 1116 he'dhave to reveal the countries where he paid those taxes and the type of incomeon which those taxes were due.
His businesses' profits and losses: Schedule C woulddetail the profits, losses and expenses of Trump's individual businessentities. Schedule K would show his or his entities' share of profits, lossesand liabilities in the various partnerships in which Trump has a stake. Thatsame schedule would also list the locations of those partnerships.
Also, on those forms he must declare whether he"materially participated" in a given business. In cases where he did,he could really reduce his tax bill because he'd be allowed to use losses from that business to offset taxable profits from other businesses or investments,said tax lawyer Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.
Whether he'd benefit from his own tax reform proposals: TheTrump administration has indicated it is working on a new tax reform plan. If and when that new plan is ever released, having the president's more recent tax returns would offer a good indication of whether he'd benefit from his own proposals.
CNNMoney (New York)
Enough excuses. Release your taxes, Mr. President
The Times Editorial Board
Tuesday is Tax Day, and millions of Americans are expected to file their1040s as part of the complicated business of paying for government. Now is thetime for President Trump to stop making excuses and release hisown tax records to the public, as he should have done many months ago.
His current and complete tax returns, that is. And back taxes too, whilehe’s at it. Two pages of Trump’s 2005 forms that were leaked to the media lastmonth showed he paid $38 million in taxes that year on more than $150million in income. Because the documents were stamped “client copy,” itraised speculation that Trump or his emissaries had leaked the document to showthat, at least for one year, he did pay federal taxes. Another leak, reported inthe New York Times last year, suggested that Trump had taken a huge$916-million loss in the 1990s that enabled him to pay no federal taxes at allfor an undetermined number of years.
Neitherof those leaks is sufficient. Neither answers the most basic questions thatAmericans have about their new president. For instance:
Does he have business entanglements overseas that might affect his foreign policy decisions?
Does he owe money to Russian lenders?
How much does he give to charity?
Does the nation’s convoluted tax system mean Trump pays taxes at a lower rate thanmiddle-class Americans?
In what years did he pay no taxes at all, and why? Whatother conflicts of interest exist that we can’t even guess at?
Trumpwould like us to believe that his election victory means people don’t careabout his tax returns. But they do. A poll conducted in January found that nearly three-quartersof Americans want him to release his returns. On Saturday, tens of thousands ofpeople marchedin Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and dozensof other U.S. cities demanding that the president release his taxes.
Ofcourse, he doesn’t have to. Although it has become a tradition over the lastfour decades, there’s no law requiring that presidents make public their taxforms. But Trump, whose finances are particularly complicated and whose potential conflicts of interests are far greater than most presidents — and who promised during the campaign that he would release his returns eventually —should do as other candidates and presidents have done. Especially with a major tax reform proposal on the way. How can the public trust the president’smotives on a tax overhaul without knowing whether he will profit from it?
Nationwide marches planned to demand Trump tax returns
by Jeanne Sahadi April 4, 2017:
Turns out though, many people do care.
Polls show 74% of Americans say he should release them. Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have publicly called on him to do so. Constituents have pressured their representatives at town halls to make it happen. And to date, there are more than 1 million signatures on a White House petition demanding that the president release his returns.
Now protesters are planning nationwide marches to demand the same on April 15.
So far, there are 135 marches scheduled across 40 states and the District of Columbia.
Several of the marches will be led by a symbol of cowardice: A big, blow-up chicken, according to Delvone Michael, a senior political strategist for the National Working Families Party and a member of The Tax March executive committee that is organizing the April 15 marches.
Based on the principles posted by the organizers, the main message seems to be this: You work for the people, Mr. President. And we are demanding that you release your returns so we can better see where you may have financial conflicts of interest and foreign entanglements.
"Without his tax returns, we're in the dark ... about whether he's operating on behalf of himself or all Americans," Michael said.
It's impossible to gauge how many -- or how few -- people will show up on April 15. Based on the numbers of those who indicated on Facebook that they'll attend, the biggest cities (e.g., Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston) will draw the biggest crowds with anywhere from 4,000 marchers to more than 20,000.
Many of the events, however, may draw fewer than 100 people. Take the planned march in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Right now its Facebook page indicates just 49 people say they'll go, and a total of 84 say they're "interested."
But the tax marches may surprise on the upside. Kathleen Petersen, a retiree who is organizing the Cheyenne march, also helped organize the local Women's March there the day after Trump was inaugurated.
"We thought we'd be lucky if we got 200 people. And we got 2,000," Petersen said.
The Cheyenne event will take place on a main road in front of the city's IRS building. "It's important to have this march to say we do care," Petersen said.
And yes, there will be a big blow-up chicken on site.
Trump is under no legal obligation to release his tax returns. He has said he would when they're no longer under audit, even though an audit doesn't preclude him from releasing them if he chooses.
His 2016 tax return, however, likely isn't under audit yet. When asked by a reporter last week whether Trump might release his latest return by April 15, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "I don't know."
White House says Trump paid $38 million in taxes on $150 million in income in 2005, calls tax form disclosure 'illegal'
by Brian Bennett March 14, 2017, 6:17 p.m.
As MSNBC's Rachel Maddow prepared to air President Trump's tax returns from 2005, the White House pushed back in advance, saying that publishing the returns was illegal and a stunt to get ratings.
"You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago," a White House official said in a statement.
Trump paid $38 million in tax on an income of more than $150 million in 2005, the White House official acknowledged, "even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction."
"Before being elected president, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," the White House official said.
Maddow tweeted earlier Tuesday that her show would air Trump's 2005 1040 tax form. Trump biographer David Cay Johnston said that he would be appearing on Maddow's show to break the news.
Trump is the first president in decades not to release his tax returns. He has previously said he would not release the documents while he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, but being under audit does not preclude someone from releasing the forms.
What's In President Trump's Tax Returns?
Lee Sheppard
President Trump’s tax returns are unlikely to turn up any Russian connections or impeachable offenses. Sorry, but federal tax returns are not the appropriate documents for that purpose. Members of Congress have offered resolutions demanding Trump’s tax returns and other members have called on him to release them voluntarily.
It was entertaining to watch Rachel Maddow fill an hour with Russian conspiracies when she didn’t have enough material from two pages of Trump’s 2005 federal tax return. It’s real work conflating Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser and the sightings of a Russian oligarch’s private jet with a bunch of real estate depreciation tax losses. Last we looked, Flynn’s speaking fees were not reportable on Trump’s return.
In those first two pages, there was confirmation of what we already know about a real estate developer’s taxes, plus an impressive amount of AMT—a surtax paid by every blue-state high earner. Indeed, Trump paid so much that he should have leaked the forms himself, as was suggested on MSNBC.
For 2005, he reported $1 million in wages and $42 million in business income, presumably from television (he is part owner of The Apprentice). He reported $10 million in interest and dividends, and $32 million in capital gain. His main source of income is rent and royalties, at $67 million. Although he owns a lot of US real estate, most of his foreign deals are licenses of his name.
Trump subtracted a $103 million loss carryover, which the White House attributed to real estate depreciation, bringing his income to $50 million. Because $32 million was capital gain, which is stacked first, his regular tax was a mere $5 million. Nearly $2 million of self-employment tax and $31 million of AMT brought his tab to $38 million.
Trump advocates repeal of the AMT, and his vastly lower regular tax liability isn’t the best advisement for that. We don’t tax for . Taxation is intended to send a message about the fairness of the economic system, so taxes have to appear to be fair to make the system look better.
Nonetheless, assertions that Trump might pay zero tax were entirely believable, as his $103 million loss indicated. Real estate is self-sheltering. The most successful real estate project in the world never makes money, according to the tax law.
Active real estate developers start at zero. Depreciation and interest deductions offset the income from rental real estate. And if those deductions exceed the associated income, they can be used against other income—in Trump’s case, his income from The Apprentice. So AMT aside, the main question was whether real estate deductions could offset his other sources of income.
Could the $103 million loss have been the rump end of the $916 million loss carryover Trump reported in 1995? That question is impossible to answer because it is not clear how old the deductions the carryover represents are. Plus he would have started new projects and incurred more real estate deductions and operating losses in the meantime. Net operating losses can be carried forward 15 to -20 years depending on when they were incurred. They are added back to determine .
What don’t we know about the president’s finances that we want to know? A lot of stuff that is not required to be reported on federal income tax returns.
Indeed, if Trump’s tax returns had all the deep, mysterious financial information that his detractors ascribe to them, he’d have to file them with the financial regulators. A tax return discloses only income as measured by tax rules.
We want to know the contours of Trump’s licensing agreements. A recipient of royalties is not required to attach the underlying license contract to his tax return. The president earns a lot of royalties. He and his family members are active in inspecting and approving licensed projects.
We want to know the amount of his nonrecourse loans on his real estate, including the identities of the lenders. The issue of the nonrecourse loans came up briefly during the campaign, and nothing came of it.
Neither the FEC nor the IRS requires the amounts of nonrecourse loans or the identities of nonrecourse lenders to be reported. If every single lender were Russian, we wouldn’t know it from the tax returns. Nonrecourse loans are not reported on tax returns.
Nonrecourse loans are not reported in FEC filings, either. Maddow insinuated that Trump hadn’t filled out his FEC forms properly. Tax returns wouldn’t confirm or deny that. Now, FEC rules don’t require as much disclosure as we would like, but Congress makes those rules. Wealthy senators don’t want people to know what how much they really have.
Real estate developers like Trump put each asset in a partnership, and then enter the partnership through an LLC. Trump also has a partnership for each license, and an LLC for each management contract. So his return is likely to include an enormous stack of schedule E’s, which feed into line 17 on the front of the Form 1040.
When a partner in a partnership reports his partnership items on schedule E, there is a line for interest, but the principal amount of the loan and the identity of the lender are not reported. The most we could do would be to extrapolate the amount of the loans to each partnership from the interest expense reported, and for that we’d have to know the prevailing interest rate for secured loans on the partnership asset in question.
We’d like to know what kinds of business deals the Trump organization might have made in corrupt, newly rich countries like . Trump has griped about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 hamstringing his ability to do business in some countries (15 USC section 78dd-2). The appropriate due diligence is expensive.
The FCPA issue is whether Trump would have been on notice that his counterparties were PEPs or someone wanting to lend an aura of legitimacy to dubious business. Willful blindness to dubious connections is cognizable under the FCPA. The defense to a transfer of valuable licenses would be that the transfers were reasonable and legal locally, and that the transferor didn’t benefit from the failed deal.
Bribes are not deductible. There no line item for bribes on the tax return. Presumably people just bury them as other expenses such as consulting fees. A taxpayer is not expected to self-report bribes paid. Payees of consulting fees are not listed on returns.
We do know that Trump projects have loads of Russian customers. They’re particularly enamored of a Trump-licensed condo in south Florida, units of which they seem to flip with alacrity.
Purchasing US real estate is a favorite way for Russians, Chinese and other newly rich to move money of dubious origin or just beat the capital controls in their own countries. Being at the receiving end of money whose movement at least violated capital controls in its country of origin isn’t money laundering. Under the statute, the launderer is the financial intermediary that enabled the transfers. Actual knowledge of concealment or unlawful activity is required (18 USC section 1956).
But Trump and a lot of other real estate dealers ultimately benefit. In public records, purchasers are usually Delaware LLCs. That is why FinCEN issued geographic targeting to require title insurance companies to report the individual purchasers in large cash real estate transactions in six US cities favored for such investments, and why condo prices in those cities have taken a hit.
If a Trump partnership were was the seller, sales of condominiums or other properties would show up on schedule E for the partnership that owned them. The name of the purchaser would not be disclosed.
We want to know Trump’s net worth. A tax return is not a wealth disclosure document. What we know about Trump’s finances comes from his FEC disclosures and his habit of going to court. (Note to business owners: Don’t take your business disputes to court. Court is public.)
Moreover, no wealthy person with hard-to-value assets could say precisely what his net worth is. Mitt Romney couldn’t have said what his precise net worth was, and his tax didn’t help with valuation. That is because he and Trump have hard-to-value assets—in Romney’s case, profits interests in private equity partnerships and in Trump’s case, licenses.
So all we can do is estimate a range of net worth. We already have a range for Trump’s net worth. Forbes put it at $3.5 billion—that’s $1.5 billion of hard assets plus the value of his name in licensing. He puts the value of his licensing higher than other observers -- that’s how he gets to $10 billion.