Burma, America, The World, Art, Literature, Political Economy through the eyes of a Permanent Exile.
"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Sometimes we must interfere. . . There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention . . . writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right." Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1986, Oslo.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017
from Boston Globe-- T tax return 2005 leaked
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump
By Teresa Hanafin
Globe Staff
What's it like outside? Better than yesterday, but it's
below freezing, so watch out for frozen slush and patches of ice. The
snow emergency was lifted in Boston at 7 a.m., but schools are closed
again. Commuter alert: The commuter rail is back on its
regular weekday schedule, so allow extra time for delays. The ferries
are operating, and the Mattapan trolley is back in service. While you were sleeping: Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Cay Johnston (and MSNBC) published the two main pages of Trump's 2005 federal 1040 form, which showed he made $152.7 million and paid $5.3 million in regular income tax, a tax rate of just 3.48 percent. He took a $103.2 million writedown, probably the last bit of the $915.7 million in losses The New York Times reported he declared in 1995,
the result of the financial wreckage he caused in the early 1990s after
he mismanaged three Atlantic City casinos, launched an airline business
that failed, and bought the iconic Plaza Hotel in Manhattan and
bankrupted it. He also had $17 million in itemized deductions, leaving a
taxable income of $31.6 million.
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However, because of the huge deductions he took, the Alternative Minimum Tax kicked in. The AMT, which Ronald Reagan signed
into law in 1986, is designed to make sure that high earners with a ton
of deductions still pay a minimum amount of tax. The AMT added $31.3
million to Trump's tax bill, for a total tax paid of $36.6 million. That
raised his tax rate to 24 percent. Now we know why Trump wants to
eliminate the AMT in his tax overhaul. The tax return that reporter Johnston found in his mailbox is stamped "Client Copy," leading
Johnston to speculate that Trump himself leaked the document because it
shows he paid taxes, and to distract from the rift within the GOP over
the health care bill and the investigations into ties between the Trump
campaign and Russian operatives. Also, there was a major hack on Twitter, with a swastika-themed tweet showing up on the accounts of many high-profile brands, businesses, and public figures.
