Tag: net worth
Trump’s Financial Disclosure Shows How He Avoids Taxes

Trump’s Financial Disclosure Shows How He Avoids Taxes

Unlikely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently filed paperwork that claims his net worth increased by $1.2 billion in just a month. Trump publicized his personal financial disclosure, a vague outline of assets, income, and business positions that all candidates submit to the Federal Elections Commission, in the hopes that the media and his Democratic opponents would quiet their calls to see his yet-unreleased tax returns.

Quite the contrary: If anything, what little we can glean from Trump’s mandatory disclosure indicates that Trump’s own claims about his assets change when it’s convenient for him; specifically, when he stands to pay less in taxes.

Take Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York. Trump wrote in his financial disclosure that the club was worth more than $50 million, even though Trump’s own attorneys say it’s worth only $9 million. Trump has earned the ire of county administrators who accuse him of trying to pay less in taxes on the property than he should.

“Look, everybody is looking to pay less in taxes. Personally, I would hope that anybody that is representing our country as president of the United States would also be willing to pay their own fair share of taxes on properties and on whatever it is on their income,” said town supervisor Dana Levenberg to ABC News. “That’s really, in my opinion, what makes America great, is everybody pitching in and doing their part.”

His attorneys had previously valued the golf course at an absurdly low $1.35 million, before ABC News’ reporting on the course, according to a subsequent update. Trump spent $8 million to buy the property and a further $45 million to build the golf course and facilities on the property grounds, and then received a 55 percent reduction in the club’s official value, minimizing his tax burden even more.

But Trump doesn’t want us to think too hard about all that: He has tried to divert attention to the disclosure’s wild claim that he’s worth $10 billion, even though Forbes, publisher of the venerable World’s Billionaires list, has calculated his worth to be around $4 billion, and many others have estimated Trump is worth much less.

Just a month ago, Trump claimed he was worth $8.8 billion, but the personal financial disclosure he released doesn’t allow for enough detail to determine his exact worth — candidates are asked to describe their assets as they fall into large ranges, so exact value is impossible to pin down.

And besides, Donald Trump’s net worth changes day-to-day, depending on how he’s feeling at the time.

“My net worth fluctuates,” he said once, after filing a lawsuit against a reporter who said he was worth less than he said he was. “And it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”

Photo: U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump gestures during a visit to his Scottish golf course at Turnberry in Scotland, August 1, 2015. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

For The First Time, Most Members Of Congress Are Millionaires

For The First Time, Most Members Of Congress Are Millionaires

Why has Congress let emergency unemployment insurance expire for first time ever during a long-term unemployment crisis?

Maybe their wealth is insulating them from reality.

For the first time ever, the majority of congressmembers and senators — 268 of 534 — have more than $1 million in personal wealth, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The median net worth of a member of the legislative branch as of last May’s filing deadline was  $1,008,767 — up from $966,000 the year before. In 2010, the median net worth of an American family was $77,3oo — before the Great Recession, it peaked at $126,400.

Senators are significantly more wealthy on average than members of the House, even without multimillionaires John Kerry, who became Secretary of State, and Frank Lautenberg, who passed away last year. The median wealth of a member of the upper house is $2.7 million, compared to $896,000 in the lower house.

Little difference in wealth separates the two parties.

MedianNetWorth2012-thumb-600x291-11717

However, the richest man in Congress is in the House of Representatives. With a net worth estimated at $464,115,018, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is worth more than several hundred of his colleagues combined.

The two poorest members, Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) and Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), are both in debt.

This spreadsheet breaks down each member by minimum and maximum worth, as indicated by their filings.

The report also analyzes the members’ investments and found that most are putting their money into real estate, securities and investments, commercial banks, oil and gas and finance companies.

Despite the extraordinary wealth, members of Congress are still expected to spend three to four hours a day fundraising, as an average winning candidate for the House spends about $1.7 million on a campaign, while a victorious Senate candidate spends on average about $10.7 million.

Photo: stanfordsis via Flickr