{"slug":"trump-tax-fraud-ny-times-investigation","title":"Decades of Tax Fraud: How Trump and the Trump Family Evaded Taxes on Over $1 Billion in Inherited Wealth","date":"1990-01-01","lastUpdated":"2020-09-27","description":"A 2018 New York Times investigation found that Donald Trump and his family employed dubious tax schemes to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in gift and inheritance taxes as wealth passed from Fred Trump to his children — including outright fraud through undervaluing assets, creating sham corporations to funnel money, and claiming fraudulent business deductions. A 2020 NYT investigation found Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.","summary":"The Times obtained decades of Fred Trump's tax records showing the family used fraudulent asset undervaluation, sham consulting fees, and a dummy corporation ('All County Building Supply') to transfer over $1 billion in wealth to Trump and his siblings while evading hundreds of millions in estate and gift taxes. A separate 2020 investigation found Trump had paid virtually no federal income tax for years.","category":"corruption","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html","title":"Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html","title":"Long-Concealed Records Show Trump's Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/ag-james-opens-civil-investigation-trump-tax-fraud-revealed-new-york-times","title":"AG James Opens Civil Investigation into Trump Tax Fraud Revealed by New York Times","publisher":"New York Attorney General"},{"url":"https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-tax-records-obtained-ny-times","title":"ProPublica analysis of Trump family tax records","publisher":"ProPublica"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["tax-fraud","corruption","pre-presidency","Fred-Trump","inheritance","All-County"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"1990-01-01","title":"All County Building Supply created","summary":"The Trumps create All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a corporation with no employees, no office, and no business purpose other than to receive payments from Fred Trump's properties and redistribute them to Fred's children as 'profits' — avoiding the gift taxes that would apply to direct transfers."},{"date":"1997-06-01","title":"Fred Trump's assets fraudulently undervalued","summary":"In estate planning, Fred Trump's properties are appraised at values the Times documents are 50-85% below true market value — dramatically reducing the tax basis on assets passed to his children."},{"date":"2018-10-02","title":"Times investigation published","summary":"The New York Times publishes 'Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father,' based on more than 100,000 pages of confidential tax return data. The Times documents specific fraudulent mechanisms used by the Trump family to evade estate and gift taxes."},{"date":"2018-10-04","title":"NY AG opens investigation","summary":"New York AG Barbara Underwood announces a civil investigation into potential fraud based on the Times's findings. The investigation later becomes a broader probe of the Trump Organization."},{"date":"2020-09-27","title":"Trump paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017","summary":"The Times publishes a second major investigation based on Trump's personal tax returns, finding he paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and $750 in 2017, and paid zero income tax in 10 of the prior 15 years. He reported hundreds of millions in business losses."},{"date":"2022-12-30","title":"Congress releases Trump's federal tax returns","summary":"Following a Supreme Court ruling, the House Ways and Means Committee releases six years of Trump's federal tax returns, confirming the pattern of minimal tax payments and large reported losses documented by the Times."}],"location":{"name":"New York, NY","lat":40.7128,"lng":-74.006},"custom":{"era":"pre-presidency","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"U.S. taxpayers defrauded of hundreds of millions in tax revenue through fraudulent estate planning schemes; public services underfunded by the amounts evaded","perpetrators":"Donald Trump; Fred Trump; Robert Trump; Elizabeth Trump Grau (all participated in schemes documented by the Times); Jack Mitnick (family accountant)","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Participant in and beneficiary of tax fraud schemes","institution":"Trump Organization / Trump family"},{"name":"Fred Trump","role":"Architect of the tax fraud schemes","institution":"Trump Organization"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2022-12-30","summary":"Updated with congressional release of tax returns."},{"date":"2020-09-27","summary":"Updated with second Times investigation on $750 tax payments."}]}}