Voices

Trump Tax Return: Top 9 Questions

IMGCAP(1)]This is not about politics.

It's about tax.  

I don’t care who you love or hate; this campaign is a game.  

But we’re not going there in this column.

Trump’s 1995 tax return was released this weekend. And after just two pages in, I came up with nine questions (OK more than nine) that I think need to be answered.

My inner tax geek wants to know!

1.  Is this a timing issue? What happens in the following years?

2.  When Trump got divorced, who kept the losses or did they get split?

3.  What underlying entities produced these losses? Were they partnerships or an LLC, as LLCs were just starting at that time. Knowing what they know now, would these entities still have been chosen as the right vehicles?

4.  What does the tax attributes carryforward schedule look like?

5.  What does the basis schedule look like?

6.  Would the CPA have been able to print all the numbers if he had "downloaded the fonts?" (Remember when tax software used to make you do that?)

7.  Will tax software today work with such big numbers?  Wolters Kluwer, Thomson, and Intuit feel free to chime in here.

8. How much did the CPA get paid to prepare the returns?

9.  Why is the CPA semi-retired at 80? I would think if Trump was my client I would be all-the-way retired.

What is your inner tax geek thinking about this initial look at this supercool complex tax return? Add them here and remember no politics! Save it for Facebook!

Jody Padar, CPA, MST, is the chief executive officer and principal at New Vision CPA Group and the author of The Radical CPA.

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