Wednesday, 28 October 2020

TRUMP MUST GO!

"LOCK HIM UP" "LOCK HIM UP" "LOCK HIM UP"

UPDATE 16 FEBRUARY 2022

EXCELLENT NEWS: As with Al Capone, it is the bookkeeper who will put him in Alcatraz. Lets hear it for the bean counters! A rapscallion businessman would try to alter the past accounting records by “file dressing”; but that is the most obvious, dangerous and dumb thing that anyone under investigation can do. The authorities and IRS only ask questions to which they already have the answers. Noel.

PS – Did I say “I told you so”? Or was I too modest?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/15/donald-trump-mazars-accountants-legal-woes

Donald Trump’s legal woes threaten to engulf him as accountants abandon ship

Mazars’ cutting ties with ex-president mark significant step in New York investigation of his financial affairs, among 19 current cases

Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on 20 January 2021 as he leaves office. Legal woes have pursued him since. Photograph: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

Ed Pilkington - UK GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

@edpilkington

Wed 16 Feb 2022 06.00 GMT

The news that the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization has cut ties with the company and retracted 10 years of its financial statements is a new and serious blow to Donald Trump’s increasingly frenzied battle to fend off the legal investigations that are rapidly engulfing him.

The revelation that Mazars USA last week ended its relationship with the Trump family comes at a perilous moment for the former president as he strives to protect himself, his family and his business from legal threats that are now coming thick and fast.

A Guardian tally this month found that Trump was facing a total of 19 legal challenges, six of which involve alleged financial irregularities.

By withdrawing its stamp of approval from the documents, Mazars leaves Trump potentially exposed to substantial legal and financial trouble.

The papers, known as statements of financial condition, were used by Trump and his family business to attract and secure hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. They are also at the centre of an escalating investigation by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James.

Last month James tightened the screws on Trump and the Trump Organization by releasing details in a filing of several instances involving golf courses, real estate and other assets where the family had allegedly “falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit”.

In a letter dated 9 February, Mazars’ general counsel, William Kelly, told the Trump Organization that the annual financial statements it had prepared for the family business between 2011 and 2020 were no longer reliable.

The accountants said they had based their decision partly on their own investigation into Trump’s finances and on the “totality of the circumstances”, concluding that “we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization”.

On the back of James’s latest attack, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and an ex-vice president of the Trump Organization, told the Guardian that in his opinion “the House of Trump is crumbling”.

James’s investigation is one of the most advanced and potentially dangerous of all the 19 legal actions bearing down on Trump. The inquiry is being pursued on both civil and criminal lines.

James is working in tandem with a separate criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. That inquiry is also looking into whether Trump and his family concern defrauded lenders or underpaid taxes by falsely representing his assets.

The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is leading a civil investigation into the Trump Organization in parallel with a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. Photograph: Joy Malone/Reuters

The disclosure that Mazars had broken off relations with Trump was included in a new court filing from James on Monday as part of her ongoing attempt to force Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, to testify under subpoena.

Trump has consistently denied financial impropriety and has attempted to cast doubt on James’s investigation by denouncing it as a partisan witch-hunt. James is a Democrat, while Trump won the presidency in 2016 as a Republican.

The Trump Organization said it was “disappointed” by Mazars’ decision but tried to spin the development in a positive light. It selectively cited a line in the Mazars letter that said that “we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies”, adding that the comment rendered the James and Bragg investigations “moot”.

As Trump’s legal and financial woes deepen, he is also being assailed by a flurry of bad news surrounding the congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Trump, who is at the centre of the House select committee inquiry given that his “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him drew thousands of his supporters to the Capitol building that day, has been trying to persuade his closest advisers not to cooperate.

This week it was revealed that John Eastman, a conservative law professor who was integral to attempts to persuade the then vice president, Mike Pence, to delay certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, has handed over 8,000 pages of emails to the committee.

It has also become known that Rudy Giuliani, who as Trump’s lawyer was a key figure in the campaign to overturn the presidential election results, has opened a dialogue with the committee that could see him testifying in some form.

*******

UPDATE - 25 NOV 2020

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/10/12/exclusive-trumps-tax-wizardry-is-even-more-sophisticated-than-you-thought/

Washington Monthly “Whether or not Donald Trump is president when the bills come due in 2024, he may still walk away with up to $150 million in tax savings to use over the next decade. So, whatever the verdict is on Trump’s business acumen, he has a singular knack for making money while losing other people’s money.”

A fascinating detailed analysis of Trump’s tax dodges. I do not know the labyrinthine USA tax system – but I can guess why Trump endlessly repeats that he can’t publish his tax returns “because I’m under investigation by the IRS.” The losses & “depreciation” he personally claims (losses of other people’s money), as his personal tax losses, are still subject to IRS audit.

The IRS will ultimately only allow losses that Trump has himself paid. According to this Washington Monthly article, he has paid very little – but claimed all the losses (by mistake, error or criminally). His tax losses, say over the past 20-30 years, will be limited to his own tax-deductible payments – excluding the billions his duped lenders, shareholders and suppliers have lost. Those are not his losses – he cannot claim them.

And - It is highly likely that he has indulged in funny-money transfers between the dozens of Trump companies onshore and offshore – to generate personal tax losses; such bookkeeping entries will be corrected by the IRS. The final adjusted IRS-agreed tax bills will then be subject to back-duty-tax costs, compound interest and penalties. On these assumptions, I previously calculated that he owes $2 to $3 billion in back taxes. Giuliani, Arthur Andersen or Al Capone might be able to argue otherwise.

As he resigns as President, will he have the power to forgive his own sins – as he claims but most US legal authorities deny? It probably depends on how much The US Treasury needs his cash.

******

STEROIDS: Is this what Trump uses to keep going? If so, he might be inviting more mental problems. In fact he could be suffering side-effects now. Body builders used steroids in the 1960s, - until they found it made them manic and violent. Regular steroid abuse is associated with Parkinson's Disease. Three doses per annum is thought to be the safe limit.

Corticosteroid-related central nervous system side effects

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC3853679

The use of corticosteroids is strongly associated to the development of psychiatric/neurological side effects. These effects are due to the wide expression of GR in the brain, and their long-term modulation can lead to functional and anatomical alterations, which might be responsible for the observed side-effects.

by M Ciriaco · ‎2013 · ‎Cited by 142 · ‎Related articles

‎Abstract · ‎INTRODUCTION · ‎CASE REPORT

Spread the word. This from today’s (28 Oct 20) Guardian lead editorial. Usually traditional, calm and conservative with a small 'C' The Manchester Guardian - now just The Guardian, one of the freest and most reliable news sources in the world, pens Trump's dismissal notice. ... And, if he still won't pay his back taxes - then LOCK HIM UP.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2020/oct/27/the-guardian-view-on-the-2020-us-elections-its-time-to-dump-trump-americas-only-hope-is-joe-biden

The Guardian view on the 2020 US elections - It’s time to dump Trump. America’s only hope is Joe Biden

Four years of deranged and unpredictable behaviour is proof that the current US president is uniquely unsuited to the job Support the Guardian’s independent, open journalism

Donald Trump’s presidency has been a horror show that is ending with a pandemic that is out of control, an economic recession and deepening political polarisation. Mr Trump is the author of this disastrous denouement. He is also the political leader least equipped to deal with it. Democracy in the United States has been damaged by Mr Trump’s first term. It may not survive four more years.

If the Guardian had a vote, it would be cast to elect Joe Biden as president next Tuesday. Mr Biden has what it takes to lead the United States. Mr Trump does not. Mr Biden cares about his nation’s history, its people, its constitutional principles and its place in the world. Mr Trump does not. Mr Biden wants to unite a divided country. Mr Trump stokes an anger that is wearing it down.

The Republican presidential nominee is not, and has never been, a fit and proper person for the presidency. He has been accused of rape. He displays a brazen disregard for legal norms. In office, he has propagated lies and ignorance. It is astonishing that his financial interests appear to sway his outlook on the national interest. His government is cruel and mean. It effectively sanctioned the kidnapping and orphaning of migrant children by detaining them and deporting their parents. He has vilified whistleblowers and venerated war criminals.

Mr Trump trades in racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. Telling the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, to “stand back and stand by” was, in the words of Mr Biden, “a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn”. From the Muslim ban to building a wall on the Mexican border, the president is grounding his base in white supremacy. With an agenda of corporate deregulation and tax giveaways for the rich, Mr Trump is filling the swamp, not draining it.

A narcissist, Mr Trump seems incapable of acknowledging the suffering of others. Coronavirus has exposed a devastating lack of presidential empathy for those who have died and the families they left behind. Every day reveals the growing gap between the level of competence required to be president and Mr Trump’s ability. He is protected from the truth by cronies whose mob-like fealty to their boss has seen six former aides sentenced to prison. A post-shame politician, Mr Trump outrageously commuted the sentence of one of his favoured lackeys this summer. The idea that there is one rule for wealthy elites and another for the ordinary voter damages trust in the American system. Mr Trump couldn’t care less.

The people’s enemy

Like other aspiring autocrats, Mr Trump seeks to delegitimise his opposition as “enemies of the people” to mobilise his base. In 2016, the institutions that should have acted as a check on Mr Trump’s rise to power failed to stop him. This time there has been some pushback over a Trump disinformation campaign about Mr Biden’s son. It is an indictment of the Trump age that social media companies acted before politicians in the face of a clear and present danger to democracy.

Mr Biden has his flaws, but he understands what they are and how to temper them. Seen as too centrist in the Democratic primaries, his election platform has borrowed ideas from the progressive wing of his party and incorporated a “green new deal” and free college for the middle class. Mr Biden should not retreat into his comfort zone. The failures of capitalism have been thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic. If elected, he will raise taxes on richer Americans and spend more on public services. This is the right and fair thing to do when a thin sliver of America has almost half the country’s wealth.

It’s not just Americans for whom Mr Biden is a better bet. The world could breathe easier with Mr Trump gone. The threat from Pyongyang and Tehran has grown thanks to President Trump. A new face in the White House would restore America’s historic alliances and present a tougher test to the authoritarians in Moscow and Beijing than the fawning Mr Trump. On climate change, Mr Biden would return the United States to the Paris agreement and give the world a fighting chance to keep global temperatures in check. With a President Biden there would be a glimmer of hope that the US would return as a guarantor of a rules-based international order.

Perhaps no country has so much to lose from Mr Biden’s victory as Britain. It has the misfortune of being led by Boris Johnson, whom Democrats bracket with Mr Trump as another rule-breaking populist. Mr Biden, a Catholic proud of his Irish roots, has already warned the Johnson government that it must not jeopardise the Good Friday agreement in its Brexit negotiations. Having left the EU, the UK can no longer be America’s bridge across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, Britain has a prime minister who led the country out of Europe just when an incoming President Biden would be looking to partner with it.

Faustian pact

Whether Mr Trump is defeated or not next week, Americans will have to learn to live with Trumpism for years to come. The first impeached president to run for re-election, Mr Trump avoided being the first to be removed from office because the Republican party has lost its moral compass. The party of Abraham Lincoln has become subsumed by the politics of grievance and entitlement. The GOP turns a blind eye to Mr Trump’s transgressions in return for preserving the privileged status of white Christian America.

The most obvious sign of this Faustian pact is the Senate’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the US supreme court — Mr Trump’s third justice. Conservatives now have a 6-3 advantage in the highest court in the land. Compliant judges are key to retaining the status quo when Republicans face a shrinking electoral base. The Republican strategy is twofold: first is voter suppression; if that fails, Mr Trump appears ready to reject the result. He has spent years conditioning his supporters, especially those armed to the hilt, to mistrust elections and to see fraud where it doesn’t exist.

We have been here before. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote by more than half a million ballots. The election turned on a handful of votes needed to capture the electoral vote in Florida. But the votes that counted were not found in the Sunshine State. They were cast by the five supreme court justices named by Republican presidents who gave the election to George W Bush.

In the 2018 midterms, a coalition of millions marched into polling booths to disavow the president. It is heartening that more than 60 million people have cast their ballot in early voting at a time when the president is doing much to call US democracy into question amid baseless claims of a “rigged election”. Americans are busily embracing their democratic right, and a record turnout in this election may show that voters, worried about whether democracy would endure, strove to save it. Anything other than a vote for Mr Biden is a vote to unleash a supercharged Trumpism. All pretence of civility would be dropped. The divides of race, class and sex would become even wider. Mr Trump is a symptom of America’s decline. Finding a solution to this problem begins with a vote for Mr Biden.

Support the Guardian’s independent, open journalism

Friday, 23 October 2020

GRAVITY ETC. - RECAP OCT 20

Summary.

GRAVITY - I have read very little in the past 20 years to dissuade me from this idea of what gravity is, as contrasted with what gravity does.

19 FEB 2016 - Read a new very short summary at NEW GRAVITY - SUMMARY

Gravity is the relative absence or reduction of the pressure of the radiation that fills the universal ocean of radiation, which is from 13.7 to 43.7 billion-light-years deep. Contemplate "The ever tightening knot of gravity, ultimately resulting in black-holes" and "Counter-intuitively, the centre of the Sun is very dark" because the centre is most "shaded" or protected from or excludes the universal radiation. (NB between masses as per Casimir). The external radiation is the PUSH and the internal partial absence of radiation is the PULL of gravity. NCH March 2015

DARK MATTER - No one yet claims to know what constitutes the missing mass or gravity, required to hold spinning galaxies together. NASA says of galaxies that measurements indicate that 80 to 90 percent of the matter is either missing or hidden from view. My previous post in this blog, speculates that this invisible matter /mass is held in the electromagnetic waves radiating between the "real" core of an object and its spherical and constantly expanding periphery. I now suppose that the amount of energy manifesting in the "empty" space between core and event-horizon depends on the scale and the age of the object. e.g. The sun's outer sphere (we observe this outer sphere) is, say, 10 billion years old. It has been pumping out energy from its core to its current horizon for 10 billion years. Waves of energy have mass.

DARK ENERGY - Is a close relation of dark-matter, except that instead of merely adding to gravitational mass, dark energy is postulated as being the force that makes the observable universe (43.7 b.l.y.) continually expand. This makes sense as all objects, all matter, in the universe have energy and all energy radiates or expands to infinity. The horizon of the observable universe at 43.7 b.l.y is as far as we can "see" - a vast distance (which I'm calling infinite). Beyond that horizon, objects are moving away faster than light, so we cannot observe them. Dark Energy and Dark Matter together are imagined to be 95% of the mass of the universe - meaning that what we detect as real matter is only 5% of the total mass.

LIFEFORCE - Is, I think, the fifth fundamental force. GRAVITY, THE WEAK FORCE, THE STRONG FORCE, ELECTROMAGNETISM and... the LIFEFORCE. On Earth we are surrounded by life. Science doesn't like it and doesn't acknowledge that it is a fundamental natural force that organises energy and ourselves. It makes and organises organisms.

Wiki-Answers say a strand of DNA, weighs 6.5 picograms (one trillionth of a gram) per cell and we humans have 6 grams to 60 grams of DNA each. The Harvard scientists calculate one gram of DNA can hold 455 billion gigabytes of data. A modern laptop or desktop PC holds about 500 gigabytes – on a 4 sq inch disk metal-coating weighing 2.4 micrograms (2.4 millionths of a gram) or 208 gigabytes per gram; So – in gigabytes per gram – DNA 455,000,000,000 /PC 208 = 2,187,500,000 or DNA is 2.1 billion times more efficient. And it lasts for 3.5 billion years.

The patterns of DNA are in turn forged by and stored in the energetic waves that fill the universe. Such patterns are re-formed and in-formed by every event in the universe. Life is a result of these dynamic patterns. I think.

LIGHT - Light has mass. Several demonstrations of this are contained in these blogs on GRAVITY - follow the tabs.

Wednesday, 14 October 2020

DARK MATTER, DARK ENERGY & SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE.

Mobius Strip of Laser light

Today, I want to further explore the concept that we observe or detect all material objects, all things, large and small, by seeing their electromagnetic signals. Everything in the universe generates or reflects light or radio waves and we "see" the waves, then analyse and interpret them.

We also signal our own existence and presence by emitting or broadcasting electromagnetic waves or light and radio. Every atom in our bodies can be detected by electron-scanning-microscopes from the radiation the atoms emit. The trillions of atoms in our bodies combine to create our unique signature signal - our entire selves - our identities. And so we can see each other as complete organisms.

Similarly, we see the sun as a complete cosmic object, and, on closer observation we can see its constituent elements. Ditto the Earth, and the planets and all objects.

All "things" radiate as globes, albeit that the globes become distorted into a myriad of shapes as the radiation contacts and accommodates other objects. But a powerful globe such as the sun retains its obviously globular shape for billions of miles. Hence we can "see" stars and galaxies that are many light years from us, from us the observers, often using machines to make or boost the observations.

What is actually happening is that our personal globe, of whatever shape, is emitting waves that meet, or collide, or intercept the waves from the thing we are observing - be it a mouse, a stone, or a galaxy, or a black hole. However near or far the objects are - they rarely meet, other than at the event-horizon of their globular radiations. If they interpenetrate - and cores actually meet - a new object is formed and it combines the two radio signals into one.

Where these globes of radiating waves intercept, waves denoting a "real" object at the centre of the radio globe, sub-atomic particles are formed. Sub-atomic particles are ephemeral energies, not solid, but they are the building blocks of all material and mass. They are sometimes referred to as wavicles, or wave-particles.

Thus, separate objects rarely meet the reality core of other objects. What they experience is, or are the emanations from each other as their event-horizons meet. If, for example, we take an atom as being material - solid mass - it is surrounded by electrons and other particles which prevent or obscure material collisions.

Thus, every object has a "real" core centre, radiating globes of signals. The periphery of the globe is in most cases what we see, detect or encounter. The space between the periphery and the core is apparently "empty" space, but is in fact full of radio waves (dark matter?). These energies are only detectable when an observer-globe meets an object-globe and at the interception point a particle is formed (perhaps like a typhoon in the atmosphere). If we act on the particle e.g. by measuring it, we act on the entire globe of which it is part. Thus a particle on the other side of the globe of radio broadcasts, or the myriad of intercepts (particles) at any point on the globe, will be altered by our one action (observation). This, I imagine, is "spooky action at a distance".

For example: Light from the sun pours out, or broadcasts continually, fuelled by atomic fusion as hydrogen converts to helium (mostly). There is a real material core which communicates its presence by its invisible electromagnetic waves. They are invisible until the waves strike, collide with, intersect or interact with other objects, dust, gas, planets, our telescopes, etc. in space. It is that interaction which, I aver, creates particles such as photons, on the surface of the sun's ever expanding, ever energised, broadcasting sphere. We, as observers, are objects in space, also broadcasting our presence (fuelled by food and sunshine) in waves of globes or spheres and reflected light, which intersect with the sun's energetic outpouring. Where the spheres meet, "Here be Particles." We humans are the real material core of our broadcasts. The core of the sun does not meet our core. The meeting is between wavicles from the two objects; the sun very large, the human very small. The sun's expanding sphere meets our expanding sphere, this meeting creates particles on the surface (event horizon) of the spheres. If we clever humans tweak one of those particles, which is part of the energetic sphere, the action alters the particle and thus alters the sphere; so, particles anywhere on the sphere/s are altered. This alteration might be instantaneous - and thus be "spooky action at a distance."

If the sun were located billions of light years from any other object, the core would still broadcast spherically continuously, but the broadcast waves would be invisible. The space between the material core and the surface of the expanding sphere or globe would appear "empty" but would in fact be filled with electromagnetic energy waves (light). As demonstrated recently, light does have mass*; masses of light have energy; energy equals mass multiplied by C squared. If we now create dust or say, hydrogen clouds encasing and surrounding where the light has expanded to - b.l.y.s from the core - and continues to expand, so that we can see the light and measure it, we will find that the continuously expanding globe is now visible; as it lights up the hydrogen. Thus, we have a mechanism that fills "empty" space with mass, and that continuously expands. For this mass to be both Dark Matter and Dark Energy that explains the "missing" 80% of galactic gravity and the ceaseless expansion of the universe - the mass has to be additional to the known weight /mass of the "real" core.

If so, where does the new, extra mass come from? The sun's core, which is pouring out masses of energy has to be replaced and added to; to explain the missing 80%. If the universe exists in an ocean of infinite energy, that has mass, that is attracted by the sun's gravity, and so falls into the sun and continually replaces the broadcast light and heat - that would suffice. But we are back to unscientific infinite creation - and so, I'm afraid, back to God.

* Light has mass - track back on the Gravity tab to previous essays.

ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLEASE - to noel@noelhodson.com

Friday, 2 October 2020

DEAD OR ALIVE - WILL TRUMP PAY $2B BACK-TAX?

"CORONAVIRUS IS FAKE NEWS - A CHINESE PLOT"

1st OCT 2020:- (This tax debate has been interrupted by the news that The President and the First Lady have Covid-19)

2ND OCT 2020 - SKY NEWS

Trump coronavirus: Why president's age and physical condition put him at 'highest risk' from COVID-19 - Based on his age and his most recent physical tests, the president is considered to be at higher risk (90 times more fatal) of serious complications. By Richard Williams, news reporter and Ashish Joshi, health correspondents.

************

First - an ordinary New York citizen investigated by the IRS :

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-taxes-cheated-michael-cohen-irs-audit-b744490.html

i HAVE BEEN PIECING TOGETHER TRUMP’S INCOME. iT IS FAR TOO COMPLEX FOR A QUICK LOOK & OVERVIEW. One report says he had/has 500 companies. BUT HERE ARE A COUPLE OF INTERESTING PIECES OF THE JIG-SAW PUZZLE. trump SEEMS TO HAVE BENEFITTED FROM ny IVY-LEAGUE PROPERTY OWNING CONTACTS IN VORNADO – GOING BACK DECADES. HOW HE BUILDS UP AND OFFSETS HIS ALLEGED TAX-LOSSES IS A MYSTERY THAT THE IRS MIGHT RESOLVE.

(WHY THIS IS TYPING IN CAPS – IS ALSO A MYSTERY

New York Times 29^th Sep 2020 : THE PRESIDENT’S TAXES

Trump Paid $750 in Federal Income Taxes in 2017. Here’s the Math.

Figures drawn from President Trump’s tax-return data show how that number was calculated.

By Russ Buettner, Mike McIntire, Susanne Craig and Keith Collins

· Sept. 29, 2020

The small amount of federal income taxes President Trump paid in both 2016 and 2017 — just $750 each year — has become the focus of much attention since it was revealed in a New York Times investigation. The figures below, drawn from Mr. Trump’s tax-return data for 2017, show how his accountants arrived at that figure for one of those years.

Donald J. Trump’s income in 2017

373,629

Wages

Includes pro-rated presidential salary and small amounts for film and television appearances.

6,758,494

Taxable interest

Almost $6 million of this is interest income from his investment with Vornado Realty Trust.

21,984

Ordinary dividends

Includes $13,123 from trusts established by his parents and $7,000 from Deutsche Bank.

7,562,038

Capital gain and other gains

Profits from the sale of property or other investments.

84,351

Pensions and annuities

Includes a Screen Actors Guild Producers pension of $77,808.

–

15,313,785

Losses on his businesses

Losses after deducting expenses from the $536.6 million in gross receipts at Mr. Trump’s core businesses.

–

12,306,111

Other income

Losses from prior years, counted with other income, further dragged the total into the red.

–$12,819,400

Total

income

By The New York Times

Although Mr. Trump donates his salary to the government, it is subject to income tax along with his other earnings. But because Mr. Trump’s overall income was negative, he did not owe regular income tax on any of it.

He was, however, still subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax, a parallel tax system that reduces the benefit of some deductions, preventing wealthy people from erasing their tax liability altogether. Most significantly, the A.M.T. formula disallowed $45 million in losses that Mr. Trump had carried over from prior years.

But tax laws gave him one more line on which to reduce the A.M.T. Mr. Trump had $22.7 million in General Business Credit, much of it carried forward from prior years, that he could apply. The credit is a smorgasbord of tax incentives and givebacks to business owners, and in Mr. Trump’s case they ranged from credits of $322,926 for Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on employee tips to at least $1.5 million related to rehabilitating the Old Post Office in Washington.

The business credit cannot be used to get a refund; it can only be applied against taxes owed. Mr. Trump had more than enough to cancel out his $7,435,857 tax bill. But on the Form 3800 for the General Business Credit, his accountants subtracted $750 from his allowable credit. Why they did that is not clear. But the result was a total federal income tax liability of $750.

Mr. Trump’s tax bill in 2017

$7,435,857

Alternative Minimum Tax

–

7,435,107

General Business Credit

$750

Total income

tax due

By The New York Times

The President’s Taxes

*********

Trump’s NY Property holdings seem to be via VORNADO REALTY TRUST – which pays him $6.7 million p.a.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vornado_Realty_Trust

Vornado Realty Trust

Type	Public company
Traded as	NYSE: VNO S&P 500 Index component
ISIN	US9290421091
Industry	Real estate investment trust
Predecessor	Two Guys
Founded	1982; 38 years ago Maryland, U.S.
Headquarters	New York City, New York , U.S.
Key people	Steven Roth (Chairman & CEO) Michael J. Franco (CIO) Joseph Macnow (CFO)
Products	Office buildings
Revenue	$1.924 billion (2019)
Net income	$3.334 billion (2019)
Total assets	$18.287 billion (2019)
Total equity	$7.310 billion (2019)
Number of employees	4,008 (2019)
Website	www.vno.com

Vornado Realty LP

Vornado Realty L.P. operates as a real estate investment trust. The Company offers energy management, BMS building, tenanat,

construction management, as well as engineering, janitorial, security, and architectural maintenance services.

Vornado Realty serves clients in the United States.

SECTOR

Financials

INDUSTRY

Real Estate

SUB-INDUSTRY

REIT

FOUNDED

10/02/1996

ADDRESS

888 7th Avenue New York, NY 10106 United States

PHONE

1-212-894-7000

WEBSITE

www.vno.com

NO. OF EMPLOYEES

Executives

NAME/TITLE

Mark Falanga

President: Merchandise Mart

Board Members

NAME/COMPANY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Fascitelli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Roth - Trump’s partner in Vornado “largest real estate owner in NY”.

Notable properties owned by the company include the following:^[1]

· New York Marriott Marquis (Retail & signage)

· 1540 Broadway (Retail & signage)

· 666 Fifth Avenue (Retail)

· 731 Lexington Avenue

· 770 Broadway

· 888 7th Avenue

· Crowne Plaza Hotel, Times Square (Retail & office)

· Fuller Building

· One Penn Plaza

· Rego Center

· Hotel Pennsylvania

The company also owns:

· 70% of 555 California Street in San Francisco, California (30% is owned by affiliates of Donald Trump)

· 100% of Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois

· 32.4% of Alexander's, which owns 731 Lexington Avenue

PS – Extraneous note from Wikipedia. Unlucky or what? “Silverstein signed a lease for the World Trade Center in April 2001,^[13] 5 months before the September 11 attacks.”

***************

John – This is from the Wikipedia article you sent to me:

– “Schron paid $705.6 million for a portfolio of about 6,000 outer-borough apartments from Donald Trump.^[2] “

The apartment complex was built in 1963–1964 by Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump.^[1][3] The complex, built on the site of the former Culver Depot,^[4] was designed by architect Morris Lapidus.^[2]

The construction cost US$70 million.^[5] It was supported by the New York State Housing Finance Agency through public bonds issued by the state of New York, coupled with tax exemption.^[6] Five out of the seven buildings were part of the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program until 2007.^[3]

It is the only Trump building complex named for Fred Trump rather than his son Donald.^[7]

This is the Trump Wikipedia entry – quite different from the one you selected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trump_Organization

AND

“How many apartments did Fred Trump own?

It grew to build and manage single-family houses in Queens, barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York City.”

So – John, selling off 6,000 flats was a small part of the empire that Fred built. Donald got total control. I guess he keeps total control. Who are the other billionaire Trumps? Correct – there are none. - Noel

Saturday, 1 September 2018

TRUMP'S $3B BACK-TAX - TO REVIVE THE RUST-BELTS?

TRUMP - MANAFORT - TAX-EVASION

Noel Hodson Blog