Trump's Tax Returns Are 'One Piece of the Puzzle.' Prosecutors Are Getting More. - Yahoo News

When New York prosecutors finally get to examine the federal tax returns of former President Donald J.

Trump, they will discover a veritable how-to guide for getting rich while losing millions of dollars and paying little to no income taxes.

Trump’s federal income tax returns and other records from his accountants.

The Times’s examination showed that the former president reported hundreds of millions of dollars in business losses, went years without paying federal income taxes and faces an Internal Revenue Service audit of a $72.9 million tax refund he claimed a decade ago.

Trump had paid just $750 in federal income taxes in his first year as president and no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

They also showed he had written off $26 million in “consulting fees” as a business expense between 2010 and 2018, some of which appear to have been paid to his older daughter, Ivanka Trump, while she was a salaried employee of the Trump Organization.

Vance’s office has issued subpoenas and conducted interviews in recent months as it scrutinizes a variety of financial matters, including whether the Trump Organization misrepresented the value of assets when obtaining loans or paying property taxes, as well as the payment of $130,000 in hush money during the 2016 campaign to Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s accountants, Mazars USA, must also produce business records on which those returns are based and communications with the Trump Organization.

Trump or his accountants made when preparing to file taxes.

More broadly, the tax records showed how the public disclosures he filed as a candidate and then as president offered a distorted view of his overall finances by reporting glowing numbers for his golf courses, hotels and other businesses based on the gross revenues they collected each year.

Trump’s public filings showed $434.9 million in revenue, his tax returns declared a total of $47.4 million in losses.

Trump’s many golf courses, a core component of his business empire, reported losses of $315.6 million from 2000 to 2018, while the income from licensing his name to hotels and resorts had all but dried up by the time he entered the White House.

audit focusing on the huge refund he claimed in 2010, which covered all the federal income taxes he paid from 2005 to 2008, plus interest.

Trump could be forced to pay back more than $100 million, factoring in interest and possible penalties, in addition to some $21.2 million in state and local tax refunds that were based on the figures in his federal filings