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Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies
insinceredawg
Member Posts: 5,117
in Tug Tavern
Committing tax fraud makes him smart, right Trumptards?
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-never-before-seen-trump-tax-documents-show-major-inconsistencies
Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax.
For instance, Trump told the lender that he took in twice as much rent from one building as he reported to tax authorities during the same year, 2017. He also gave conflicting occupancy figures for one of his signature skyscrapers, located at 40 Wall Street.
Lenders like to see a rising occupancy level as a sign of what they call “leasing momentum.” Sure enough, the company told a lender that 40 Wall Street had been 58.9% leased on Dec. 31, 2012, and then rose to 95% a few years later. The company told tax officials the building was 81% rented as of Jan. 5, 2013.
A dozen real estate professionals told ProPublica they saw no clear explanation for multiple inconsistencies in the documents. The discrepancies are “versions of fraud,” said Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. “This kind of stuff is not OK.”
New York City’s property tax forms state that the person signing them “affirms the truth of the statements made” and that “false filings are subject to all applicable civil and criminal penalties.” The punishments for lying to tax officials, or to lenders, can be significant, ranging from fines to criminal fraud charges. Two former Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, are serving prison time for offenses that include falsifying tax and bank records, some of them related to real estate.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-never-before-seen-trump-tax-documents-show-major-inconsistencies
Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax.
For instance, Trump told the lender that he took in twice as much rent from one building as he reported to tax authorities during the same year, 2017. He also gave conflicting occupancy figures for one of his signature skyscrapers, located at 40 Wall Street.
Lenders like to see a rising occupancy level as a sign of what they call “leasing momentum.” Sure enough, the company told a lender that 40 Wall Street had been 58.9% leased on Dec. 31, 2012, and then rose to 95% a few years later. The company told tax officials the building was 81% rented as of Jan. 5, 2013.
A dozen real estate professionals told ProPublica they saw no clear explanation for multiple inconsistencies in the documents. The discrepancies are “versions of fraud,” said Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. “This kind of stuff is not OK.”
New York City’s property tax forms state that the person signing them “affirms the truth of the statements made” and that “false filings are subject to all applicable civil and criminal penalties.” The punishments for lying to tax officials, or to lenders, can be significant, ranging from fines to criminal fraud charges. Two former Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, are serving prison time for offenses that include falsifying tax and bank records, some of them related to real estate.
Comments
This is a pretty normal business practice to have one set of books for Tax and another for Book (accrual-based accounting). There's limits as to how much and who can be a cash-basis taxpayer and who has to be accrual. But it's not at all unusual.
If you don't know shit about finance or accounting....AAAARRRGHG two sets of books....FRAUD!!!....AAAAARGH Trump.
It's possible there's wild occupancy rate swings if, for instance, a tenant knocks down a few floors and then moves in/out.
I am a mercenary, however, and would do that kind of stuff for cash money. So hit me with either Venmo or a gofundme and I can make it say what needs to be said. Don't care either way - red money cashes the same as blue money.
Sounds sinister...
And somehow it is "shocking" that they paid $744k in "insurance", but paid $460k in "property insurance". Because...you know...the only kind of insurance around is property insurance.
HondoBros unite...you have some stupid to put on display...
the company told a lender that 40 Wall Street had been 58.9% leased on Dec. 31, 2012, and then rose to 95% a few years later. The company told tax officials the building was 81% rented as of Jan. 5, 2013.
According to Wikipedia, this building has over 1.1M square feet of office. So they are claiming they filled almost 250k square feet of space in a span of 5 days. While it's possible to sign a large lease, I challenge you to go find out if there were any major leases signed for this building during the first week of January 2013. My guess is no and Trump lied about it. Prove me wrong.
OK! Makes total sense.
HTH
He seems angry.
And its not like the WSJ wrote articles about Trump leasing out 400+k in office space in a short amount of time at the same building in 2009 (Bear Stearns was in it):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204624204577177552462568814
But for someone who keeps telling everybody how Trump is a bad business person they might want to explain how bad of a deal it was for him to buy the building for ~$10MM and it be worth ~$600MM now. Sounds like Trump didn't know what he was doing...
Add to that I'm confused as to how telling a lender in 2012 the place was 60% rented and a tax office in 2013 the place is 80% rented (which is likely true so who cares to begin with) somehow defrauds anybody...you gave the bank a low number which doesn't help the application and you gave the govt a higher number which would hurt you if you are somehow trying to lowball its value.
But why bring logic into a discussion with a HondoFSBro...
And decided that you've exceeded your limit
Go ahead hang your hat on taxes. Mueller did.