On 10/3/2018 6:12 AM, John H. wrote:
On Tue, 2 Oct 2018 20:11:38 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 10/2/18 6:34 PM, justan wrote:
To determine what happens or doesn't happen on public property.



President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s,
including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the
fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York
Times has found.

Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made
billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New
York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help.

But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax
returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the
equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate
empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.

Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge
taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise
millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews
show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper
tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy

to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions
of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those
properties were transferred to him and his siblings.

These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue
Service, The Times found. The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump,
transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which
could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55
percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances.

The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax
records show.

Shame on them for following the law. Gosh, I circumvent paying taxes by contributing to charity.
Shame on me for taking the deduction!

I wasn't sure about the context of the original post, but now I see it
was a hate on Trump.
Who doesn't take every legal advantage of the tax code available?
I fund 2 SEPs 2 IRA's and an HSA every year, I took college tuition
credits, subtract 1/2 of the SS I pay (self employed), Use a carryover
tax loss, deduct my health insurance, my taxable income is low enough
that I pay 0% tax on Long Term Capital gains.
Part of the key here, you must spend less than you earn!
You must save $6,500 for each IRA contribution, another $7,000 for each
SEP (in my case) and $7,900 for the HSA.
A couple years ago I knocked 63% off my Line 22 Taxable income thru
these and a few other deductions/credits.
I have been paying 1.5% to 4.5% of my Line 22 Taxable income. The fun
times are ending though, my kid deductions are gone, I can't write of
college tuition. So, I'll be paying more in the future.
Now that pesky FICA/Medicare tax gets me for $10,000 or $12,000 every
year, used to hate it, now that I'm close to collecting it's a nice base
to put gravy on.