https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/nyregion/trump-taxes-vance-appeal.html A federal appeals panel said on Monday that President Trump’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors The three-judge appeals panel did not take a position on the president’s biggest argument — that he was immune from all criminal investigations. A lower court had called that argument “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.” Instead, the appeals court said the president’s accounting firm, not Mr. Trump himself, was subpoenaed for the documents, so it did not matter whether presidents have immunity. Mr. Trump’s lawyers sued to block the subpoena, writing that the criminal investigation of the president was unconstitutional. They asserted that presidents have such unique power and responsibility that they cannot be subject to the burden of investigations, especially from local prosecutors who may use the criminal process for political gain. Federal prosecutors are barred from charging a sitting president with a crime because the Justice Department has decided that presidents have temporary immunity while they are in office. “We view the entire subpoena as an inappropriate fishing expedition not made in good faith,” William S. Consovoy, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, told the appeals panel at oral arguments.
He probably has not paid very much in taxes because of loss carryovers. My wife and I have used it although nothing close to what Trump probably has done. If you get hammered with some big capital losses, you must offset them with capital gains or take a nominal deduction from regular income. If you can’t use all of the loss in a given year, you can carry it over to future years. Since he’s been audited six ways to Sunday, the IRS has ruled it legal, but the optics might not look good. When you are involved in complicated deals like Trump has been, the tax laws get involved and complex.
I'd be on Trump's side in this if he were a private citizen. He isn't; the established precedent and process (which the Republicans seem now to find so important) is that presidents and nominees for the office make their tax returns public. Trump said repeatedly that he would, and there's no good reason for not doing so. Naturally those of us who are aware of his shady financial dealings in the past (and not hypnotised by his wonderful personality) are suspicious of his motive for refusing to follow established precedent and process. It will go to the US Supreme Court of course, and I think the conservative justices will dither over it as long as they can to provide cover for him.
If Trump has been within the law, what difference does it make? If you don't like the tax law, change it. Most citizens want to take as many legal tax breaks as they can get given the fact that you have spend almost half the year now to earn the money to pay them.
Is not progress the enemy of tradition? Tradition comes before progress. Progress has to overcome tradition. Tradition never overcomes progress.
Fascism is not progress either but that didn't stop a functioning liberal democracy from falling into it anyway.
Back in the 1920's there were intellectuals who thought the Fascism was the wave of the future. Just think! All you had to do hand over your problems to the “experts,” they will fix it. Mussolini got the trains to run on time, right? It's the trouble with all of the "top down" governmental systems. They don't work.
Then why in the hell would you be repeating history by supporting a modern Fascist dictator? Fascism has been described by Mussolini (note the proper spelling) himself roughly as a marriage between the State and the Corporation. Mussolini may not have used those exact words but his meaning was clear.
How did I give support to Mussolini? I was mocking the foolish people who thought his system was some sort of modern wave of the future. People with you political bent are constantly fascinated by an all-powerful central government that will solve all of society’s problems. It never works, but the statists always think, “We’ll get it right this time.” If we had only elected Hillary Clinton president, the world be a better place! If we could only find the Fountain of Youth for Bennie Sanders and elect him, we’d be headed to the promised land! Heaven on earth will come if we elect Elizabeth Warren, and she destroys all of the corporations! And if only we could have made Obama president for life, like FDR! Oh rapture! On joy! Rubbish. Dictators create disasters.
Again, you are confusing Fascism and Socialism. How many times does it have to be pointed out to you that they are not the same thing nor even on the same side of the political spectrum. Can I loan you a little WD40 for that mind of yours that is as closed as a rusty steel trap? You don't seem to be able to incorporate any facts into your ironclad preconceptions. YOU CAN'T LEARN! Must be a function of your advanced age or something. No wonder your posts are ignored so often.
No, Joe you get confused when you equate Capitalism with Fascism. No, I would be browl beaten by far left bullies like you.
As my economics professor said in undergraduate school, “It’s not how big a company is; it’s how it how it acts within the market.” That’s the distinction, Joe, not the size of the company. Just because a company is a large corporation does not mean it is bad. It is how it handles its size and influence that matters.