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[Bumber]

He wrote off like 3/4 of a million dollars for having Ivanka work as a consultant to the White House.

How....just.....how? How can he claim someone working for his administration some how has an impact on his personal income taxes? So not only does he pay his daughter American tax dollars to work for him, HE claims it as a tax write off for himself?

I think you've misinterpreted something.

NYT article claims she was paid by the Trump Organization, for consulting on "hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii." The NYT discovered this using "financial disclosures Ivanka Trump filed when she joined the White House staff in 2017."

Trump can't possibly write off something that somebody else (the American taxpayer) paid for. He has to prove that he spent money in order to get a deduction. It's just a scheme to make his income look lower than it actually is. Then Ivanka can spend the money when Trump needs something paid for.

[nenjin]

What got me was the "consultant to the White House." It muddies the waters about what she's actually doing for the Trump Administration. If the Trump Organization paid her, then that's a write off. But it sorta begs the question what an advisor to the White House is doing consulting him on his personal businesses.

[Dostoevsky]

If I recall correctly, Ivanka (and other family members) aren't getting paid a salary. This is mainly because legally family members are barred from such service in the White House, on penalty of... not getting paid, so the 'no salary' thing is just taking advantage of a loophole.

(The statute was passed in the 60s in response to some Kennedy family stuff.)

[nenjin]

But they are getting paid a salary. By the Trump Organization. Working as advisors. Which he then writes off on his taxes. Which is his personal business. It's the same bullshit shell game they've played with their taxes their whole lives.

[Dostoevsky]

Yeah, my point was just a technical quibble. Don't disagree on the overall issue.

[misko27]

Now see the thing is you'd first need to verify what services were performed for 750k, then you'd need an industry survey to indicate how much they would pay for the services rendered to see how it compares. Auditing is complex.

That said, apparently the US tax court has specifically ruled that a haircut is not a business expense, so dunno what he's claiming vis-a-vis that.

Just feeling really vindicated over here right now about calling the economy The Imaginary Number Game for the last 15 years.  As Drew Carey says, the rules are made up and the score doesn't matter.  It's about status.  It's about being in the club.  This is why you and I live and die by the imaginary number game.  Yet people like Trump can, by the numbers, be more catastrophic failures in greater debt than we could ever imagine for stretches of decades, yet still continue to live richer than we could ever imagine.  Because if you're in the club, your status will always provide cushion and bounce-back from any fall.  What's it take to be in the club?  Not imaginary numbers.  It may play a part in gaining or losing membership, but the core of the status game is social, not numerical.  It's about having social connections to the club, serving the interests of the club, and, above all, convincing others performatively that you're in the club.  Being known as having status is self-fulfilling, and trumps the rules of the imaginary number game always.  This is the difference between a homeless person who goes to prison for 20 years for stealing $20, and someone like Trump who can walk around spending millions casually while being hundreds of millions in debt.  It's all a big lie.  Imposed on the majority by and for the few, who only pretend the rules exist to provide mechanism for the legitimacy and execution of the power of their status over the majority.  As soon as that's not what it's about, it doesn't exist.  As Alan Moore puts it, history's greatest magic trick.

Well you may be interested to hear that Part 2 of the NY Times story about his taxes focuses on his Reality TV, and includes info about how much the fame from the show was itself worth (Spoiler: the answer is about $230 million, which exceeds the the $197 million he made from the actual show). And it talks about how it was a lifeline for his failed investments from his inheritances.

[sluissa]

Also, in digging through the laws surrounding what Dostoevsky linked a few posts back, it appears that White House Staff (with exceptions which aren't entirely clear without more digging than I want to deal with, but on first glance aren't obviously common exceptions) are limited to having salaries no more than $160k or so. By the rules as they appear, it would be impossible to pay someone 750k to work in the white house, at least out of the official budget, and at least within a single year. Or even a 4 year term.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

And they're off.

[McTraveller]

It's... is this reality?

I hope that poor moderator got hazard pay.  And this is only 20 minutes in...

[Rolan7]

And here I was thinking the moderator should be fired.  What a morass.  At least Biden finally got a 2 minute uninterrupted segment, and did fine. 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's actually worse than I expected. Looks like I need more doomerism.

[Rolan7]

It's... getting better?  Like Biden hit a stride, or learned how to keep talking despite Trump's snipes.

[dragdeler]

-

[sluissa]

It's honestly disappointing. I have to say, Trump is winning this debate purely on the grounds that he's not playing by the rules and nobody's really able to stop him.

It's a mess. Nothing is getting answered. But it's hurting Biden more than it's hurting Trump. Which, may be the point. Just hoping that this doesn't change anyone's mind.

[hector13]

Well.

This kinda sucks.