Trump is a business failure. Is he a tax cheat, too?
The latest bombshell Times story on the president’s tax history confirms what we already suspected: Donald Trump is a terrible businessman. Despite inheriting more than $400 million and being bailed out by his father at critical junctures, he managed to lose (or at least claim tax losses) of more than $1 billion over a decade.
The latest story also shows how we do a terrible job of adequately taxing the wealthy. The 400 richest Americans often pay tax at lower rates than the middle class because so much income from wealth is taxed at low or zero rates.
But perhaps most important, the story reinforces the need for a congressional investigation of the president’s tax returns.
President Trump is not just a run-of-the-mill multimillionaire, paying taxes at a low rate. As the Times has documented, there is ample evidence that his father’s estate — of which he was the executor — engaged in tax evasion and outright fraud, failing to pay about $500 million in estate taxes. [Continue reading…]