All Sins Trump: Tax Evasion Edition - Election Day Minus 5

Yesterday, we looked at Trump's support of war crimes and torture.  The day before it was Trump's birther entanglements.

It's interesting to note that we still haven't heard from Senator Pat Toomey that he's not voting for the racist potential war criminal in the race.

What gives, Pat?  What else do you need to know to say, "No I just can't vote for a man like Trump.  I just can't."  Could it be the many many deplorable Trump supporters in Pennsylvania that you need for your (at this point questionable) re-election chances?

Way to go, Pat.  Trading in humanity and decency for a few votes.  Way to go.  So so proud of you.

Anyway, back to Trump.  You may have missed this story recently of how Trump seemingly used other people's debts to cancel his own crushing debt burden:

Donald J. Trump proudly acknowledges he did not pay a dime in federal income taxes for years on end. He insists he merely exploited tax loopholes legally available to any billionaire — loopholes he says Hillary Clinton failed to close during her years in the United States Senate. “Why didn’t she ever try to change those laws so I couldn’t use them?” Mr. Trump asked during a campaign rally last month.

But newly obtained documents show that in the early 1990s, as he scrambled to stave off financial ruin, Mr. Trump avoided reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income by using a tax avoidance maneuver so legally dubious his own lawyers advised him that the Internal Revenue Service would most likely declare it improper if he were audited.

Of course there's no way to know for sure exactly how the debt was moved around because Trump has (oh so coincidentally) refused to release his taxes.

And there's no chance they'll be released before the election.  Of course.

In the early 90s, Trump was in deep debt.  Had his creditors simply forgiven him his debts, then he would have had to declare that money as income.  Taxable income.

So here's what he did:

The strategy, known among tax practitioners as a “stock-for-debt swap,” relies on mathematical sleight of hand. Say a company can repay only $60 million of a $100 million bank loan. If the bank forgives the remaining $40 million, the company faces a large tax bill because it will have to report that canceled $40 million debt as taxable income.

Clever tax lawyers found a way around this inconvenience. The company would simply swap stock for the $40 million in debt it could not repay. This way, it would look as if the entire $100 million loan had been repaid, and presto: There would be no tax bill due for $40 million in canceled debt.

Can you do that with your VISA bill?  No?  Hmmm...

Trump swapped his casino debt for "partnership equity" in his business.

So why is this a big deal?

“He deducted somebody else’s losses,” [John L. Buckley, who served as the chief of staff for Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation] said. By that, Mr. Buckley meant that only the bondholders who forgave Mr. Trump’s unpaid casino debts should have been allowed to use those losses to offset future income and reduce their taxes. That Mr. Trump used the same losses to reduce his taxes ultimately increases the tax burden on everyone else, Mr. Buckley explained. “He is double dipping big time.”

I think he meant "bigly" but that's OK.  Like Trump's debt, that can be forgiven.

The Times piece points out that Trump knew that the IRS would not like the maneuver.

But like the unwanted kissing and pussy grabbing, he did it anyway.

So Senator Toomey, you were once the president of the pro-business Club for Growth, is this OK with you?  Trump using someone else's debts to cancel his own tax burden to the tune of nearly a billion dollars?

Can you say now that he won't get your vote?