Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
>> Following a long legal battle
and public debate, house
democratss released six years of
former president trump's federal
tax returns.
Documents totaling thousands of
pages.
Here's more.
>> These are trump's personal
and business taxes from the
years he ran for and served as
president.
Democrats defend the release as
part of a probe into whether the
irs delayed auditing him.
In a video, trump blasted the
move as a political hit.
>> Although these tax returns
contain relatively little
information and not information
that almost anybody would
understand, they are extremely
complex.
The radical Democrats behavior
is a shame upon the U.S.
Congress.
>> What information did we
learn?
To discuss, I'm joined by Russ
Buettner and Nina Olson.
Let me start with Russ.
You have looked through these,
been poring over them all day.
We already knew a bit about the
bottom line.
The committee released these
total taxes the president paid
as president from $1 million to
nothing in taxes.
How much more do these documents
today tell us about the former
president?
>> I think what they do is
provide a continuum for
reporting we had done to take 20
years of his tax returns from a
couple of years ago.
And you see more of the same.
The businesses he runs generally
report massive losses, tens of
millions of dollars a year.
The business is tied to his
entertainment and licensing
operations do ok.
There is no expense associated
with running those.
Doesn't really require much in
the way of business expertise.
He continues to benefit from the
inheritance from his father.
The one big year he had in 20,
he reported a 24 million dollar
positive taxable income.
That was the first time in a
decade he reported a positive
taxable income.
Underlying that was the sale of
$26 million worth of assets he
had inherited from his father.
That is what made a typical year
for him look like a winning
year.
His inheritance when he is a 70
plus-year-old man sitting in the
white house.
>> Among the reasons we are
looking at this, he's Kennedy
again from president.
One thing you noticed in these
pages was the sheer number of
entities Mr. Trump has set up as
part of his business.
Hundreds of them come up more
than 400 listed in 2015.
How unusual is it.
How unusual are these returns
for a multimillionaire?
>> I think for real estate,
there is a reason to have
multiple entities to hold the
asset and to hold management to
hold if you are doing hotel
management.
You might have an entity doing
reservations.
What is fascinating is the
breath of them, many countries.
So when you have someone who is
president of the United States,
that is something that is
concerning for the national
security issue.
I think these are not on the
scale for 100 different
pass-throughs.
Generally wealthy people will
have a number of pass-through
entities associated with them.
These are very many.
>> The big question we keep
coming back to, public debate
over how someone like Donald
Trump pays zero dollars in taxes
during some years.
What did you learn from these
documents, and what does it say
about the overall tax system?
>> What you really see is the
role of the net operating losses
carried forward for years, kept
charitable contribution
deductions that can be taken at
a given year and eat up your
income and you can carry it back
or carry it forward.
The trump hotel had a
rehabilitation credit carried
back a year and can go forward
for 20 years.
It was really interesting.
Congress in 1967 tried to deal
with the fact there were
millionaires that had not paid
any taxes and created the
alternative minimum tax.
In many of these years,
practically every single one of
them, the former president was
hit with the alternative minimum
tax because it means if you use
these preferences, you may be
able to eliminate taxes.
So they make you add things back
in.
Other credits ate away and
offset the alternative minimum
tax.
That is clearly something
congress needs to look at.
>> I wonder what you learned
about the tax system in the
modern age?
>> A good point.
There are ways wealthy people
with a lot of assets can get out
of paying taxes.
One of the big ones Donald Trump
is using equally -- uniquely
positioned to benefit from is
using losing money to write off
your income tax, reduce income
taxes on something like a job on
television.
A job on television had no
expenses associated with it.
He just showed up and was filmed
and edited to look like he
looked.
Some years he made $20 million
from that.
200 million dollars from being
on television.
He was able to use the losses
from his golf courses and hotels
to reduce the taxable income.
That is not widely available to
most of us.
Nina mentioned the charitable
deductions.
That is another case.
He bought land and tried to
develop it.
He placed a valuation on it with
a credible appraiser and
accountant and said it was worth
$21 million.
Made it sound like he could be
developed and it could not.
The irs after some pressure
decided to look at that and
decided somewhere between zero
dollars and $8 million as a tax
write off.
Things most people could not
find a way to do that can reduce
income tax burden down to zero.
>> In 30 seconds, it was
unprecedented.
What do you make of the idea of
the house committee releasing
the taxes of any individual?
>> I'm very worried it becomes a
pattern in the future.
The confidentiality of tax
returns is very important
getting people to continue to
file tax returns with the
government.
On the other hand, the tax
returns are a roadmap to what is
wrong with our tax system and
what we need to reform that you
might not get from some abstract
discussion.
>> Nina Olson and Russ Buettner,
thank you for helping us.