WASHINGTON — The New York Times and ProPublica reported that former President Donald Trump could be facing an IRS bill exceeding $100 million as a result of a government audit that found he double-dipped on tax losses related to a Chicago skyscraper. The report was based on a years-long audit as well as public filings.
The results of the investigation may bring attention to Trump’s business background once more as the presumed Republican nominee looks to win back the White House following his defeat in 2020.
Trump used his cachet as a real-estate developer and star of so-called reality TV to build a political movement, yet he has refused to release his tax filings as past presidential candidates have. The tax filings that the public does know about have come from past reporting by the Times and a public release of records by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee in 2022.
In a statement released in the name of his son Eric Trump, the Trump presidential campaign claimed that the IRS investigation “was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office.” We have faith in our standing.
Trump twice deducted losses from the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which opened in 2009 on the north bank of the Chicago River’s main branch that passes through the downtown area of the city, according to tax records cited in the report.
The report said Trump initially reported losses of $658 million in his 2008 filings under the premise that the property fit the IRS definition of being “worthless” because condominium sales were disappointing and retail space went unfilled amid a deep U.S. recession.
But in 2010, the published report said, Trump transferred the ownership of the property to a different holding company that he also controlled, using the move to save money on taxes by reporting an additional $168 million in losses over the next decade on the same property.
The report did not have any updates on the status of the IRS inquiry since December 2022, but said Trump could owe more than $100 million, including penalties, if he were to lose the audit battle.
Trump, meanwhile, is appealing a New York judge’s ruling from February after a civil trial that Trump, his company and top executives lied about his wealth on financial statements, conning bankers and insurers who did business with him. In early April, Trump posted a $175 million bond, halting collection of the more than $454 million he owes from the judgment and preventing the state from seizing his assets to satisfy the debt while he appeals.
Democrat President Joe Biden and other critics have observed that Trump largely owes his fortune to an inheritance from his father, rather than through his own financial acumen. Biden has gone after Trump for not wanting to pay taxes, while his administration has increased IRS funding in order to increase audits of the ultra-wealthy and improve compliance with the federal tax code.
The Trump campaign opposes the additional funding that Biden and Democrats provided to the IRS. At campaign rallies, Trump has said the United States would be destroyed as a country unless his 2017 tax cuts that are largely set to expire after 2025 are extended.
