Trump got a $21 million tax break for saving the forest outside his New York mansion. Now the deal is under investigation

[ducks]

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Trump-got-a-21-million-tax-break-for-saving-the-15633539.php


But but but he only wrote a check for 750
Firefighters pay 21 million in taxes?

[Warlord23]

This scheme is likely one of many that Trump has used to reduce his tax bill - inflating the value of the conservation easement would allow him to overvalue the charitable gift (which offsets his tax liability). He didn't actually have to pay $21M or get a refund for it, he reduced his tax bill via the charitable gift.

This is fairly pedestrian stuff though. Trump and his family have done far worse, e.g. funneling money from the Trump Foundation (his "charity" that is now closed) into Trump's businesses

[Will Hunting]

Conservation easement tax breaks are getting challenged all over the country, this isn’t specific to Trump. It was a poorly designed tax incentive that’s now ending up in court because of how often rich people are using it.

[Warlord23]

Think of it like this, ducks. Assume you gifted your jizz-stained "Art of the Deal" book to a Trump fan club. When filing your taxes, you claimed that the gift of the book was worth $1,000 which you show as an itemized deduction on your taxes. Now that is fraudulent, as there is no way you can justify Trump's book to be worth $1,000 when you can buy it for $10 on Amazon

[MultiTroll]

Article is not favorable to Rump.

Not sure why you posted ducks. Confused and thinking Dunceold paid 21 million?

[ducks]

He got tax credit for 21 million duh
Ofcourse now 5 year later New York says they are looking into it as a political hit job

[Ef-man]

Ducks did not read the article.

[boutons_deux]

The problem is not that Trash gamed the tax system, state and Federal, but that it was so damn easy.

And all the millionaires, and their tax lawyers/accountants/firms, are hoping that the rubes will think Trash is THE only bad tax-avoiding/evading apple

[CosmicCowboy]

Property takes a definite hit in value when put in a conservation easement. It can't be subdivided or developed FOREVER. I'm not defending the 21 million because I have no idea what it was worth before.

[Will Hunting]

Before everyone who has no idea how this stuff works decides to weigh in with partisan takes (like the stupid one in the OP) - the practice of hiring an appraiser who gets a lot of business from you to appraise your property at either an inflated or deflated value (depending on your tax objectives) by using what appraisers call extraordinary assumptions (i.e., the assumptions made by the appraiser mentioned in the article) is not uncommon at all, but be prepared for the ultimate audience of the appraisal to question said assumptions.

One of the post financial crisis regulations implemented on real estate lending was requiring FDIC-insured banks to hire an appraiser (vs. allowing the borrower to engage the appraiser) for real estate it was lending against, and that was the result of banks getting reckless in the early 2000s relying on appraisals obtained by the borrower with valuations based off extraordinary assumptions.

In this case, the extraordinary assumptions are pretty ridiculous. The entitlement/approval process in Westchester County is known to be extremely onerous - getting approval to parcel the land into 24 different lots and to build 24 mansions would cost well into the millions and take years, assuming you could even get it done. It looks even more ridiculous when you consider Trump tried to develop the land and failed. Nevertheless, he hired a 3rd party to provide an opinion that he relied on, so it would be tough to call this deliberate tax evasion unless he concealed information that would have decreased the property's value.

My opinion - This isn't a Trump specific problem, it's a problem with the overall system of being able to hire a "3rd party" appraiser of your choice who's financially incentivized to provide you a favorable valuation that you can then use to justify valuation used for a tax credit.

[Winehole23]

Meh

[DMC]

Conservation easement tax breaks are getting challenged all over the country, this isn’t specific to Trump. It was a poorly designed tax incentive that’s now ending up in court because of how often rich people are using it.

Don't bring professional level commentary to this thread. What are you trying to do, ruin it?

[DMC]

Article is not favorable to Rump.

Not sure why you posted ducks. Confused and thinking Dunceold paid 21 million?

You need a nickname generator, yours are horrible and damn near unrecognizable.