Many individuals close to Trump, including his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, have been convicted of tax fraud.Last month, The New York Times released a lengthy article following months-long reporting into the operations of Fred Trump’s real estate empire. Previous media investigations found that Trump recorded a massive loss in 1995 to avoid paying taxes. Trump has consistently claimed he built up his own real estate empire wth minimal financial help from his father, a real estate mogul. Trump not only used the description to promote his image as a skilled businessman but also to paint himself as a "self-made man" during his presidential candidacy.Īdditionally, unlike previous US presidents, Donald Trump has refused to release his personal tax returns. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate." "There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. " The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory," Donald Trump's lawyer, Charles Harder, wrote in a statement. "All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid," Donald Trump's brother Robert said in a statement included in the paper's report, adding that both national and state tax authorities closed his parents' estates. Administration spokesperson Sarah Sanders added that US tax authorities had "reviewed and signed off on these transactions." The White House described the report as a "misleading attack against the Trump family by the failing New York Times," also criticizing the paper and other media outlets for constantly "attacking" the president and his family. With respect to impact, McCouch thinks that the report will "heighten interest into the Trump organization's business dealings and, if it's possible, increase the sense of partisan divide in perceptions over whether this business of avoiding taxes is what smart people do or at the fringes of proper and legal behavior."įor some, being able to avoid government taxes is something positive that smart people do.The legal expert finds it "hard to imagine as a practical matter that case would ever be reopened given that the family got a closing letter from the IRS," the US tax authorities.
Methods detailed by the paper included setting up sham corporations, taking improper tax deductions and undervaluing real estate holdings to US tax authorities. Trump and his siblings helped their father dodge taxes by engaging in questionable tax schemes.Starting in childhood, Donald Trump received at least $413 million (€360 million)from his father's real estate wealth, not the $1 million loan that the president has touted he got from his father as start-up capital.What the New York Times found: Key claims Read more: Report slams Trump for legal tax avoided since 1995