NY investigating Trump consulting payments that reduced his taxes
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Nov 20, 2020
This "inquiry' by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage". These politicians are simply ruthless, ' she said. On a 2017 disclosure she filed when joining the White House as a presidential adviser, she reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, totaling $747,622, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Investigators with the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is conducting a broad criminal investigation, and the NY attorney general's office, which has a civil inquiry under way, have subpoenaed the Trump Organization seeking records relating to the consulting fees.
The Times wrote that there was no indication Ivanka Trump is a target of either the state's or the city's investigation.
It isn't known whether any investigation has gathered sufficient evidence to charge Trump with any crimes. Representatives for the Manhattan district attorney, NY attorney general and Trump Organization declined to comment.
In August the attorney general's office asked a judge to make the president's son Eric Trump, who is an executive vice president at the Trump Organization and runs its day-to-day operations, to testify in the inquiry and he did so in October.
The probes are two of several legal entanglements likely to intensify when Trump leaves office and loses immunity from prosecution.
Among the revelations was that Mr. Trump reduced his taxable income by deducting about $26 million in fees to unidentified consultants as a business expense on numerous projects between 2010 and 2018. They have identified at least four Trump properties that are under scrutiny.
Some of those fees appeared to have been paid to Ivanka Trump.
NY authorities investigating the Trump Organization have expanded their inquiries to include tax write-offs involving millions of dollars in consulting fees, according to people familiar with the investigation. The Internal Revenue Service has, in the past, pursued civil penalties over large consulting fee write-offs it found were made to dodge tax liability.
However, it's not clear if the IRS ever questioned the Trump Organization about their write-off practices.
'Everything was done in strict compliance with applicable law and under the advice of counsel and tax experts. All applicable taxes were paid and no party received any undue benefit, ' he said to the Times.
If true, that wouldn't necessarily pose a problem for Ivanka Trump herself, as long as she paid income tax on the consulting payments, which she reported publicly.
The New York Times first reported the subpoenas had been sent.
