Ag with kids said:

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Canvasback said:

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The presidency has been the most profitable business venture Trump has taken on.

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Considering his wealth went DOWN by at least a billion dollars during his first term, I'm not sure you accurate...

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That because in his first term and through 2021 he thought crypto and digital assets were a scam.

"In a June 2021 interview, roughly five months after leaving office, he said Bitcoin "just seems like a scam" and suggested the cryptocurrency was competing against the US dollar."

This time around, he and the family invested in a lot of crypto and digital related activities and he now thinks of himself as the crypto President.

This is kind of like he wanted to ban TikTok in the US in the first term which was celebrate on Texags by many including myself but after getting significant donations from Jeff Yass, he suddenly thought TikTok was ok.

Answered my question above.

Acting AG Todd Blanche on Trump’s weaponization fund: We're not moving forward with the fund. Period. pic.twitter.com/dY41OEfhDE

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 2, 2026

Not like Team Trump to roll over so quickly. Horse trade for Homeland/ICE bill?

unimboti nkum said:

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Ag with kids said:

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Canvasback said:

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The presidency has been the most profitable business venture Trump has taken on.

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Considering his wealth went DOWN by at least a billion dollars during his first term, I'm not sure you accurate...

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Awwww, poor billionaire

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I notice you didn't address the fact that the poster either is completely misinformed or lied...

But, I would expect nothing less from you...

Thanks for being obtuse!

The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year. He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

Kansas Kid said:

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The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year. He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

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Personally, I thought THAT was the bad thing in the settlement.

I had no problem with the victims of the government weaponization getting some form "reparations" (to use a word the left LOVES) to compensate them for all the expenses and other things they had to deal with.

I didn't like that it was taxpayer dollars, but then, it was taxpayer dollars that ****ed them over, too...

I think that there should be a way for the victims of the weaponization to go get their ounce of flesh from the actual people that were guilty of using the government punish them, though...

There is. But the statute of limitations passed 2.5 years ago. But even then, unless their last name is Bevins, they're going to lose.

Kansas Kid said:

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The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year. He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

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Do you think those audits would… do what exactly?

flown-the-coop said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year. He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

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Do you think those audits would… do what exactly?

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Let's see? There is the cost to manage the audit which alone is likely in the millions of internal and external costs. For most complex businesses, they frequently result in a higher tax bill than originally filed because any smart businessman is going to push the limits on deductions. There are reports this is worth $100-600MM to Trump based on a double write off of his Chicago Tower failure and potential taxable gains on crypto investments and other ventures in 2025. For example, let's say his tax team quickly filed his 2025 taxes and said he owed nothing. With this agreement, there is no potential liability for underreporting.

This is speculation but any wealthy person and/or sizable company would love to have this amnesty agreement. If it doesn't have substantial value to Trump, why would he insist on keeping this part of the deal while the fund is scrapped?

Kansas Kid said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year. He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

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Do you think those audits would… do what exactly?

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Let's see? There is the cost to manage the audit which alone is likely in the millions of internal and external costs. For most complex businesses, they frequently result in a higher tax bill than originally filed because any smart businessman is going to push the limits on deductions. There are reports this is worth $100-600MM to Trump based on a double write off of his Chicago Tower failure and potential taxable gains on crypto investments and other ventures in 2025. For example, let's say his tax team quickly filed his 2025 taxes and said he owed nothing. With this agreement, there is no potential liability for underreporting.

This is speculation but any wealthy person and/or sizable company would love to have this amnesty agreement. If it doesn't have substantial value to Trump, why would he insist on keeping this part of the deal while the fund is scrapped?

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Audits do not often result in additional taxes unless you break the law. Are you saying the CPA firms Trump uses intentionally break the law and put their professional licenses and reputation at risk just for Trump? Are you serious with that? Because that's next level TDS thinking.

You think he should just have to pay for audits because your name is Trump? And because your name is Trump you cheat the IRS out of $100s of millions in taxes even though prior audits have never shown this to be the case?

You are projecting him as a tax cheat and disparaging the highly reputable CPAs who handle his taxes.

All this agreement does is prevent the IRS from continuing their longstanding harassment of him, his family and his companies.

There is not a single Trump supporter that believes Trump should be subject to never ending audits because Orange Man Bad.

And you are assigning value to something that should not happen to anyone, much less a reputable businessman such as Trump.

Good lord.

I see someone has little or no knowledge of how corporate taxes are done and what the IRS does. For large companies, the audit rates have been over 80% in certain periods. Why? The tax law is far from black and white. Trump had a long standing tax audit from 2010 over a $72.9mm dispute that was later settled. Companies can take more or less aggressive options on tax returns to reduce their liability depending on management discretion. Trump has acknowledged being aggressive in his tax returns. That isn't criminal in most cases it just puts the company or personal deductions at risk of audit.

Example for Trump
Trump National Golf Club (California): After years of failing to get local approval for housing due to unstable, landslide-prone land, Trump placed an easement on a portion of his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. He claimed a $25 million tax deduction while continuing to operate it as a driving range.

What is the value of that deduction? Trump and his CPAs got an aggressive valuation and the IRS challenged the valuation. I don't blame Trump for his position and would likely take a similar position if I was him. It certainly isn't criminal but valuations are by their nature highly subjective and the IRS frequently disputes these.

There are a number of other areas frequently subject to audit such as depreciation write off periods and amounts, write offs of bad business investments, etc.

Great summary of audits history for large companies. At one point in 2010, 96% of them were audited in a year and adjustments resulted in over $10B of tax liability.

https://tracreports.org/tracirs/latest/507/

HTownAg98 said:

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There is. But the statute of limitations passed 2.5 years ago. But even then, unless their last name is Bevins, they're going to lose.

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I assume you're talking about my wish list...

Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

Trump and his tax accountants bartering over certain valuations is NOT all that was happening with the IRS, not what this lawsuit is about, nor is all the information available for you to make the determinations and insinuations you are making.

And that's before you get into accusing him of cheating the system for 2025 "just cause he can".

flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

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I'm sure it has, since it has black lettering! Amirite, David Duke?

flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

Trump and his tax accountants bartering over certain valuations is NOT all that was happening with the IRS, not what this lawsuit is about, nor is all the information available for you to make the determinations and insinuations you are making.

And that's before you get into accusing him of cheating the system for 2025 "just cause he can".

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Oh I forgot you have a degree in everything especially defending absolutely everything Trump does as perfect and he can do absolutely no wrong.

If you are a CPA, you would know that the tax code has so much grey in it and the question is how far do you want to push into the grey such as valuing conservation easements and writing downs of assets. You would also know that audits are normal for large companies and wealthy individuals and adjustments happen all the time with no accusations of criminal wrong doing. The issues are settled with penalties and interest payments.

As to the lawsuit that triggered this settlement, it was filed because Trump says he was harmed to the tune of $10B because his tax returns were leaked by an IRS contractor. As a result of you thinking this settlement is fair for the American taxpayers, I assume you also support making the same settlement with anyone that has their tax returns leaked. If so, that includes George Soros and a number of other libs like Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg and others who also had returns leaked by Charles Peterjohn. In total, the total, he leaked returns of over 400k of the wealthiest Americans so why shouldn't everyone get the same settlement as Trump?

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

Kansas Kid said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

Trump and his tax accountants bartering over certain valuations is NOT all that was happening with the IRS, not what this lawsuit is about, nor is all the information available for you to make the determinations and insinuations you are making.

And that's before you get into accusing him of cheating the system for 2025 "just cause he can".

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Oh I forgot you have a degree in everything especially defending absolutely everything Trump does as perfect and he can do absolutely no wrong.

If you are a CPA, you would know that the tax code has so much grey in it and the question is how far do you want to push into the grey such as valuing conservation easements and writing downs of assets. You would also know that audits are normal for large companies and wealthy individuals and adjustments happen all the time with no accusations of criminal wrong doing. The issues are settled with penalties and interest payments.

As to the lawsuit that triggered this settlement, it was filed because Trump says he was harmed to the tune of $10B because his tax returns were leaked by an IRS contractor. As a result of you thinking this settlement is fair for the American taxpayers, I assume you also support making the same settlement with anyone that has their tax returns leaked. If so, that includes George Soros and a number of other libs like Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg and others who also had returns leaked by Charles Peterjohn. In total, the total, he leaked returns of over 400k of the wealthiest Americans so why shouldn't everyone get the same settlement as Trump?

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

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Can you explain this one? Always seems like the uninformed think you can just write down assets. They act like MTM and 475 are available for everyone. Is that your contention? Or are you talking about 165 deductions (also very limited)?

Kansas Kid said:

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The horse trade is Trump, his companies, and his family arestill getting his relief from audits through last year.

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If the IRS or DOJ in next administration decides to audit Trump his family or companies, the chances this "settlement" prevents that is as close to zero has you can get.

Quote:

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He is also able to say an activist judge is why they are pulling a plan that is a massive political loser even with many in his base.

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This is more likely what is happening.

Sorry, I should have said writing off assets and not writing down assets. I worked on many projects supporting my company taking a worthless stock and asset write-offs. More than once we have been audited on these deductions with the IRS. One example, we wrote off a part of a plant. The IRS took the position that since the asset was still present on the site and could be used for something else, it wasn't worthless even though we had no intention to use it and we weren't maintaining it.

For Trump, I think his bigger area of taking aggressive positions have been his conservation easements and I'm sure as most/all real estate developers, doing a cost segregation analysis to accelerate DD&A. This gets especially open to interpretation when you buy an existing building and its contents.

I've seen enough conservation easement reports to know that you can push a number any direction you want. The question is if the IRS pushes back. If they do, you're almost certainly screwed.

Kansas Kid said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

Trump and his tax accountants bartering over certain valuations is NOT all that was happening with the IRS, not what this lawsuit is about, nor is all the information available for you to make the determinations and insinuations you are making.

And that's before you get into accusing him of cheating the system for 2025 "just cause he can".

---

Oh I forgot you have a degree in everything especially defending absolutely everything Trump does as perfect and he can do absolutely no wrong.

If you are a CPA, you would know that the tax code has so much grey in it and the question is how far do you want to push into the grey such as valuing conservation easements and writing downs of assets. You would also know that audits are normal for large companies and wealthy individuals and adjustments happen all the time with no accusations of criminal wrong doing. The issues are settled with penalties and interest payments.

As to the lawsuit that triggered this settlement, it was filed because Trump says he was harmed to the tune of $10B because his tax returns were leaked by an IRS contractor. As a result of you thinking this settlement is fair for the American taxpayers, I assume you also support making the same settlement with anyone that has their tax returns leaked. If so, that includes George Soros and a number of other libs like Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg and others who also had returns leaked by Charles Peterjohn. In total, the total, he leaked returns of over 400k of the wealthiest Americans so why shouldn't everyone get the same settlement as Trump?

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

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The issues are sometimes resolved in favor of the taxpayer. I should know, I had it happen to me and it included return of taxes paid, fantastic interest on those returned tax payments, and then a note from the IRS about the taxes I owed on the interest they paid on taxes I did not owe.

You GROSSLY mischaracterize the tax / audit process and frequency of audits and scope of those audits.

This case is not about a mass data leak of taxpayers. This was about a targeted release of tax information to damage the reputation of a businessman, POTUS and candidacy for POTUS.

And the tax code is not grey, its pretty decidedly black and white. It just happens to be very, very complex and the wealthy take advantage of any and all mechanisms to be tax efficient.

Thanks for the ProPublica article on how the wealthy plan taxes. Got to the B&I board if you want more information, but if you pulled my 2019 to 2024 taxes it shows I paid effectively $0 in taxes. I paid for all those years on my 2025 return. That none of your business but if you did a random data hack that's what you would find.

Regarding if I am a CPA. Here you go.

BigRobSA said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

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I'm sure it has, since it has black lettering! Amirite, David Duke?

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David Duke is head of the DNC minority outreach division last I checked.

Kansas Kid said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Thanks. I had forgotten about the CPA license that has hung on my wall for over 25 years.

Trump and his tax accountants bartering over certain valuations is NOT all that was happening with the IRS, not what this lawsuit is about, nor is all the information available for you to make the determinations and insinuations you are making.

And that's before you get into accusing him of cheating the system for 2025 "just cause he can".

---

Oh I forgot you have a degree in everything especially defending absolutely everything Trump does as perfect and he can do absolutely no wrong.

If you are a CPA, you would know that the tax code has so much grey in it and the question is how far do you want to push into the grey such as valuing conservation easements and writing downs of assets. You would also know that audits are normal for large companies and wealthy individuals and adjustments happen all the time with no accusations of criminal wrong doing. The issues are settled with penalties and interest payments.

As to the lawsuit that triggered this settlement, it was filed because Trump says he was harmed to the tune of $10B because his tax returns were leaked by an IRS contractor. As a result of you thinking this settlement is fair for the American taxpayers, I assume you also support making the same settlement with anyone that has their tax returns leaked. If so, that includes George Soros and a number of other libs like Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg and others who also had returns leaked by Charles Peterjohn. In total, the total, he leaked returns of over 400k of the wealthiest Americans so why shouldn't everyone get the same settlement as Trump?

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

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Because they didn't sue the IRS to demand recompense?

Kansas Kid said:

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So, I see someone has little or no knowledge of how corporate taxes are done and what the IRS does. For large companies, the audit rates have been over 80% in certain periods. Why? The tax law is far from black and white. Trump had a long standing tax audit from 2010 over a $72.9mm dispute that was later settled. Companies can take more or less aggressive options on tax returns to reduce their liability depending on management discretion. Trump has acknowledged being aggressive in his tax returns. That isn't criminal in most cases it just puts the company or personal deductions at risk of audit.

Example for Trump
Trump National Golf Club (California): After years of failing to get local approval for housing due to unstable, landslide-prone land, Trump placed an easement on a portion of his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. He claimed a $25 million tax deduction while continuing to operate it as a driving range.

What is the value of that deduction? Trump and his CPAs got an aggressive valuation and the IRS challenged the valuation. I don't blame Trump for his position and would likely take a similar position if I was him. It certainly isn't criminal but valuations are by their nature highly subjective and the IRS frequently disputes these.

There are a number of other areas frequently subject to audit such as depreciation write off periods and amounts, write offs of bad business investments, etc.

Great summary of audits history for large companies. At one point in 2010, 96% of them were audited in a year and adjustments resulted in over $10B of tax liability.

https://tracreports.org/tracirs/latest/507/

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So, you're a CPA, too?

No but I have supported our tax team a lot on audit issues and positions taken that we knew would almost certainly be part of our annual audit. I checked with our head of tax and we have been audited every year for over 20 years.

Would you support Soros getting the same deal if he sues? How about Gates/Microsoft and Bezos/Amazon?

Kansas Kid said:

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No but I have supported our tax team a lot on audit issues and positions taken that we knew would almost certainly be part of our annual audit. I checked with our head of tax and we have been audited every year for over 20 years.

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I would fire you head of tax and whatever tax advisors you have.

Now, you do realize a financial audit by a cpa firm is not the same as an audit by the IRS, right?

You can also have a quagmire of LLCs and taxing authorities. Sales tax audits are not IRS audits. Painful yes but not the same.

With Trump, the objective was to go through every holding every account every partnership every LLC every top employee every family member every close friend & associate and also to go after any organization or entity that advised the trump org and family.

Please stop acting like what the IRS was doing and attempting to do with Trump was routine.

Kansas Kid said:

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Would you support Soros getting the same deal if he sues? How about Gates/Microsoft and Bezos/Amazon?

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They running for office and had the IRS go after them in unheard of ways to ruin their reputation, undermine their businesses all in an effort to win elections?

I had not seen that but if you want to provide some articles I will absolutely read them.

Kansas Kid said:

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No but I have supported our tax team a lot on audit issues and positions taken that we knew would almost certainly be part of our annual audit. I checked with our head of tax and we have been audited every year for over 20 years.

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Ah...

So this is like when the non-lawyers explain to the lawyers how the law works.

Or the non-engineers explain to the engineers how engineering works.

Cool...

I spent a few years in big global corporate world for a consumer products company. Due to acquisitions, multi-national locations, and being around for nearly 200 years means thousands of entities and an unimaginable number of tax filings.

Would the global head of tax quip they are under audit all the time? Of course and they would technically be correct.

With Trump, as with most all things Trump, people conflate a lot of different happenings to try and paint unique, oft misleading takes on the routine.

Trump has had several famously failed real estate deals, the most known being the casinos. Depending on which tax years one pics, those failed deals and subsequent losses wipe out his other income. But these become quite hard for the layman to follow due to the LLCs and partnerships, which ARE routine in real estate projects (unlike the Biden LLCs which are not as usual).

Another audit stems from the Trump Chicago project which opened in 2008. One can imagine that was not an opportune time for a luxury residential property to come online. In these deals, investors, owners, operators, residents, lenders all have different types of holdings through different entities - again all very standard. I imagine Trump participated in several different manners including a likely licensing deal on his name separate from owning several of the units like having an interest in the property amenities, parking, having some ownership in the partnership performing the construction management, maybe a separate investment for the land, separate for the development of the tower, maybe an interest in a partnership that brokered the sale of individual residences.

Trump claimed a substantial deduction for his original investment then other deductions later on related investments. The question from the IRS was whether this was a double-dip as Kansas Kid alluded to. However, it's not just likely but highly probably that alleged double-dip was related to write-offs of related, but separate investments in the project that rolled up to Trump. As a simple example, I invested in an entertainment venue that has a real-property interest. I have been offered opportunities to invest in the concession operations of the venue and an overall company that owns multitalented venues. If the entire thing goes tits up, then I have 3 different losses that to a rando on the webs looking at flown-the-coop's illegally released returns may conclude the IRS is right and I scammed them.

If it turns out I sue the IRS for releasing my information illegally and I also ask to resolve their claims I wrongly took the deduction, we may reasonably reach a settlement that also ends their audit of my losses and compensates me for their violation of law. It would be incorrect to assume that it was nefarious for them to drop ongoing audits and agree not to audit those years as they have already "tainted the pool" with their nefariousness in releasing the returns in an attempt to influence my business and personal reputation.

That's a ton of words to say that it is simply wrong to conclude the overall actions by the IRS regarding Trump were routine. People then lump in other actions taken by state agencies regarding the leak return to then paint Trump, his family and his businesses as perpetual tax cheats. They are not.

I am certain I may have gotten a minor detail or two not quite right but the overall picture is correct be my understanding.