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Decades of Tax Fraud: How Trump and the Trump Family Evaded Taxes on Over $1 Billion in Inherited Wealth

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.

Record summary

Grade

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Executive actions that exceed constitutional authority, circumvent statutory constraints, or weaponize government institutions for political ends. Scale and definitions

Status
Concluded
Incident date
Record updated
Location
New York, NY
Category
Corruption & Self-Dealing
Legal posture
Reported
War-crime classification
Enabling conduct
Verification
Independently verified
ICC relevance
No
Sources
4 cited
Stable ID
trump-tax-fraud-ny-times-investigation
Victims
U.S. taxpayers defrauded of hundreds of millions in tax revenue through fraudulent estate planning schemes; public services underfunded by the amounts evaded
Alleged responsible parties
  • Donald Trump, Participant in and beneficiary of tax fraud schemes— Trump Organization / Trump family
  • Fred Trump, Architect of the tax fraud schemes— Trump Organization

Key points

  • Fred Trump transferred over $1 billion in wealth to his children; the Times estimated they would have owed approximately $550 million in taxes under legitimate estate and gift tax rules — but paid only about $52.2 million, a fraction
  • The primary vehicle was 'All County Building Supply & Maintenance,' a dummy corporation created by the Trumps to funnel money: it bought goods for Fred Trump's properties at standard prices, then 'resold' them to the properties at markups, with the markup going tax-free to Fred's children
  • Fred Trump's properties were systematically undervalued for estate tax purposes — undervalued by 50 to 85% below their true market value according to the Times
  • Donald Trump received at least $413 million in today's dollars from his father's real estate empire, contradicting his longtime public claim of having built his wealth from a 'small loan of a million dollars'
  • A separate 2020 investigation found Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 (the year he was elected) and $750 in 2017 (his first year as president), and paid zero federal income tax in 10 of the 15 prior years
  • Trump's businesses showed hundreds of millions in losses used to offset personal income — losses that Trump's own business associates told the Times reflected the actual poor performance of his businesses, not paper accounting losses

Overview

Donald Trump built his public persona — and his political brand — around the image of a brilliant self-made businessman who turned a "small loan of a million dollars" from his father into a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire. A 2018 New York Times investigation, based on more than 100,000 pages of confidential tax return data spanning decades, demolished that narrative.

The investigation found that Trump received at least $413 million in today's dollars from his father's estate — not through a loan, but through a series of tax avoidance schemes that Trump's family used to transfer vast wealth while paying a fraction of the legally owed estate and gift taxes.

All County Building Supply

The centerpiece of the scheme was a dummy corporation called All County Building Supply & Maintenance. It had no employees, no office, and performed no actual services. Its purpose was to serve as a pass-through: Fred Trump's properties would purchase supplies and services, with All County nominally serving as an intermediary. All County marked up prices and kept the difference — which went to Fred's children as business income rather than gifts, avoiding gift taxes that would have been owed on direct transfers.

Fred Trump's own aides later said that the scheme was set up specifically to transfer money to his children tax-free.

Fraudulent Undervaluation

Fred Trump's properties were systematically appraised at values the Times found to be 50 to 85% below their true market value for estate planning purposes. Since estate taxes are assessed on reported values, not market values, dramatically undervaluing assets reduces the tax bill dramatically. The Times found evidence of deliberate coordination between the Trumps and appraisers to produce below-market valuations.

The $750 Tax Payment

A 2020 follow-up investigation found that Trump had paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 — the year he was elected president — and $750 in 2017, his first year in office. In 10 of the prior 15 years, he had paid zero federal income taxes.

He reported hundreds of millions in business losses during this period — losses that, under the tax code, could be carried forward to offset future income. Some of those losses appeared to reflect actual business failures (his casinos, his airline, his various failed ventures). But others appeared to be generated through accounting maneuvers rather than actual economic losses.

The gap between Trump's public image as a successful businessman and his reported tax losses was a central subject of the Times investigations.

Update log

  1. Updated with congressional release of tax returns.

  2. Updated with second Times investigation on $750 tax payments.

Sequence of events

  1. All County Building Supply created

    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.

  2. Fred Trump's assets fraudulently undervalued

    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.

  3. Times investigation published

    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.

  4. NY AG opens investigation

    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.

  5. Trump paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017

    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.

  6. Congress releases Trump's federal tax returns

    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.

Sources

  1. Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father — The New York Times
  2. Long-Concealed Records Show Trump's Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance — The New York Times archived ✓
  3. AG James Opens Civil Investigation into Trump Tax Fraud Revealed by New York Times — New York Attorney General
  4. ProPublica analysis of Trump family tax records — ProPublica

How this record was published

Manually curated This entry was added directly and does not carry an automated audit trail.

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