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Drew Harwell over at the Washington Post has an interesting story about a tax loophole that could allow Trump appointees to avoid paying millions in taxes.
President-elect Donald Trump's ultra-wealthy Cabinet nominees will be able to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes in the coming weeks when they sell some of their holdings to avoid conflicts of interest in their new positions.
The tax advantage will allow Trump officials, forced by ethics laws to sell certain assets, to defer the weighty tax bills they would otherwise owe on the profits from selling stock and other holdings.
The benefit is one of the more subtle ways that the millionaires and billionaires of Trump's White House, which already will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history, could benefit financially from their transition into the nation's halls of power.
The legal tax maneuver, offered for years to executive-branch appointees and employees, was designed to help ease the sting of being forced to suddenly sell investments.
But the federal program, encoded in Section 2634 of federal ethics laws and known as a "certificate of divestiture," has never been tested quite like this. Trump's Cabinet picks have amassed assets worth billions of dollars from lifetimes in banking and investing, much of which they will be able to sell tax-free.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by jmorris on Monday December 05 2016, @06:38AM
I suppose, by the fact this article is posted, we are supposed to be outraged or at least consider this bad in some way?
Make up your minds lefties:
So do you want to continue to make the tax implications of buying and selling things to be such a primary decision maker? If so, you have this allow this exception unless you only want poor people to serve in the government. Or I guess you could waive all the laws against conflict of interest, don't think you would like that better though.
With luck, Trump will simplify the tax code enough and make it enough less punitive of savings and investment that this sort of exception will no longer be required for future public servants.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Monday December 05 2016, @06:46AM
In what way is the current tax code punitive of savings and investments?
What's really going to happen: Trump will reduce taxes for his billionaire buddies. The rest of us (including you) will pay for the super-wealthy to get a tax cut.
Trump is appointing super-wealthy people to his cabinet. Do you think that those people give a shit about ordinary people? All they care about is getting a bigger slice of the national wealth for themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @02:52PM
In what way is the current tax code punitive of savings and investments?
You mean when I pay tax when I earn my money, then when I invest the already taxed money and not really make a profit but barely try and fail to keep up with inflation (which is another tax) and I have to pay a Tax on that, too? You mean that kind of punishment of endless taxation on same money?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @10:18AM
No, not really. The story was submitted by one of our community who thought it was worthy of a discussion. What I see here is that discussion taking place. Many of you have rightly pointed that at the moment Trump has absolutely no case to answer. The tax exemption was in place for just this eventuality, and has been on the books for many years. But it is valuable IMHO to clear the air of such accusations before the man sits in the hot seat, rather than have this sort of thing being a smokescreen to what is actually taking place sometime in the future.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @11:47AM
Ahh, bullshit.
The discussion is less about the law, but that Trump is defrauding Americans with his billionaire friends, and the fucker hasn't even taken office yet. Does his treachery know no bounds?
This was a hit piece, pure and simple, and as someone who peruses the submission list, this was the cleaned up version of another anonymous submission that could barely keep from frothing at the mouth, and was expedited ahead of several other more worthy stories. You really want to go down that route?
Lying to the user base is the surest way people abandon this place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @01:31PM
> the cleaned up version of another anonymous submission that could barely keep from frothing at the mouth
Yup, I posted that other version of the same story, was hoping that my headline would make it to a joint story. I've posted before about my personal problems with lying, self-serving real estate developers (every one I've come in contact with) so I'm no fan of Trump.
Here is the discussion I tried to start -
Avoiding taxes is done by many, and for the ultra-rich this may come at a significant cost of tax lawyers, etc. Now all they have to do is suck up to the big D and get a cabinet position--presto, wipe out taxes on their asset appreciation with one easy move. My question: What it the motivation of these new cabinet members, tax avoidance or public service. Put another way, can we expect anything close to "noblesse oblige"?
Google gives this definition: 1. the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 05 2016, @02:49PM
This story made it to the front page on a Sunday. Weekends are when the submission queue runs low. So it's then articles like this tend to be selected.
If non-science/tech articles are anathema to you, you can help push them into the background by submitting tech & science-related articles on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. It would be an especially great service to the community because many of us have more time to leisurely read articles on the weekends.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @03:20PM
I'd be interested to see how you came to this absurd conclusion.
Wrong - click on the original submission button and you well see that this was submitted by FNord666. What was printed was what he submitted. So it is not a 'cleaned up version of another anonymous submission' but a story submitted by FNord666 that originally came from the WaPo.
Well, I've just disproved the 'cleaned up version bit' but, as someone who 'peruses the submission list' you will know that we often receive several submissions on the same story. The 'anonymous submission' did not comply with the SN guidelines which state that stories should be unbiased. So we chose to use this submission and not the anonymous version.
Just because it does not agree with your political view does not make it a 'hit piece'. It made, not unreasonably, several claims which were worth further scrutiny. We as a community are giving it that scrutiny. However, if this is how Trump supporters are going to behave for the next few years we are in for interesting times ahead. Learn to accept criticism, you are going to be getting plenty.
The Editors will accept your printed apology here - we are not a liars. Although whether an apology from someone who hasn't even got the guts to put his name to something he has written is worth much I will leave for others to judge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @04:49PM
> someone who hasn't even got the guts to put his name to something he has written is worth much
Janrinok is a pretty exotic name. Why did your parents name you that? Is it a family name?
(Score: 3, Funny) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @05:43PM
But Jan Rinok can be traced to me if you make the effort - I'm still searching for Anonymous Coward
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @07:26PM
"traced" is a cop-out
Even if someone uses their actual name, a world of 8 billion people with thousands of name collisions, that means very little.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @07:40PM
The name can be traced by my email to my email server, then to my home and website - if you cannot achieve that then there is not much I can do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @07:32PM
The story was submitted by one of our community who thought it was worthy of a discussion.
No, the story was submitted by at least two that I know of. Isn't it customary to note that in the thread? And given the broad claims in the other submission, wouldn't it been a clue by four that maybe the title is incorrect, and that this affected more than Trump?
What I see here is that discussion taking place.
What I see is are obvious corrections to the story that was riddled with so many "happy accident" errors to give a completely false presentation of the law. If I submit a story about the supposed Satanic connections with Hillary Clinton, will that make the front page as well under the guise of the commingling of religion and politics?
Many of you have rightly pointed that at the moment Trump has absolutely no case to answer.
Well gee, that's charitable of you, but there is the issue of every other administration falling under the same laws that somehow escaped attention for the past umpteen years. Funny that.
But it is valuable IMHO to clear the air of such accusations before the man sits in the hot seat
Yes, there has been much clearing of the air by making even more accusations.
rather than have this sort of thing being a smokescreen to what is actually taking place sometime in the future.
As opposed to the smokescreen taking place now.
Gotcha.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @07:56PM
We only acknowledge multiple submitters so that all submitters get the karma points. As ACs cannot get karma, we do not normally do it for them. However, if we have already processed the story that we are accepting and then receive another version which does not meet the submission guidelines, we do not take any action to acknowledge the second story. And as I had no role in the editing of this story - as you can see if you read it carefully - it seems a bit pointless blaming me for it. I will however defend any editor against unfair claims that he/she is a liar.
As a Brit I am unqualified to comment on the niceties of US law. However, the community is better placed to do so. That is what they have done. It is called a discussion.
Not really, I am merely acknowledging that is what many of the more intelligent comments have said. I haven't got a horse in this race - I don't personally give a damn about who won your election. But we will all have to live with the consequences, so Trump's supporters had better get used to having people criticising their man.
I haven't made any accusations. Other commentators might have, perhaps you ought to take this up with them. If you don't like the submission, perhaps you ought to take it up with the submitter. And again I reiterate, the more intelligent comments have debunked the incorrect accusations in the various comments. Why do you think that it is our job to vet every comment to ensure that it suits your view of the world? You go fight your own case!
He is not yet in office, what smokescreen is taking place now? I said it is better to have this out of the way now rather than use it as a 'smokescreen in the future'.
Damn you got me there - I cannot argue against such a well-made logical argument.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @08:14PM
Problem being, beyond your tenuous accusations, I am far from a Trump supporter.
But I can recognize obvious yellow journalism. Maybe it's a quality you could learn to cultivate?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday December 05 2016, @08:24PM
Didn't mean to cast any slurs on your character. But if we stick to discussing what the story is about rather than blaming the editor, submitter or commentators that you don't agree with, we should be able to get along fine.
And as I live on this side of the pond - I'm going to bed now...