Subject: **ICYMI: ABC NEWS (Ross): The Only Time Donald Trump Undersells: Tax Time**
From: Adrienne Elrod <[email-masked]>
To: Adrienne Elrod <[email-masked]>
Cc: Mary Rutherford Jennings <[email-masked]>, "Alexandria Phillips" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 09:37:04 -0400
List-Id: <toptalkers.hillaryclinton.com>

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/time-donald-trump-undersells-tax-time/story?id=39133709

The Only Time Donald Trump Undersells: Tax Time

Brian Ross

The Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, with its
lovingly-manicured golf course, gently winding streams, stone bridges,
101-foot waterfall and an expansive clubhouse is, according to Donald Trump
<http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/donald-trump.htm>, reflective of “a true
luxury lifestyle.”

Creating such a “memorable club” is not cheap -- Trump wrote on a candidate
disclosure form that the sprawling 147-acre private club bearing his name
is worth “more than $50 million.”

But when it came time to value the property for tax purposes, his lawyers
have argued that Trump National is really only worth $1.35 million. The
proposed valuation has bewildered officials in the small town of Ossining,
who said the new figure would cut Trump’s tax burden by 90 percent and dump
that burden on everyone else.

“Trump says he represents the little guy, but the little guy is going to
have to pay his taxes for him here in Ossining,” said Dana Levenberg, the
Ossining town supervisor.[image: PHOTO: Atmosphere at the 3rd annual Eric
Trump Foundation Golf Invitational at the Trump National Golf Club
Westchester, Sept.15, 2009 in Briarcliff Manor, New York.]Bobby Bank/Getty
Images
Atmosphere at the 3rd annual Eric Trump Foundation Golf Invitational at the
Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Sept.15, 2009 in Briarcliff Manor,
New York. more +

The presumptive Republican presidential candidate has so far declined
requests to make public his tax returns, citing ongoing IRS audits. Tax
experts say that decision has made it next to impossible to assess Trump’s
approach to paying taxes. But his effort to minimize his tax burden in
Ossining is consistent with similar challenges his lawyers have filed
around the country, court records show. And it keeps to Trump’s aggressive
approach to minimizing his tax burden that has been a hallmark of his
decades in business, according to an ABC News review of public documents
and news accounts from the past four decades.

In 1986, when Trump purchased one of the most expensive luxury yachts in
the world from the Sultan of Brunei, "The Princess," he used a lease-back
arrangement involving an out-of-state company to avoid having to pay $1.75
million in sales tax to the state of New Jersey for the purchase of the
yacht.
[image: PHOTO: A file photo from July 1988 showing real estate developer
Donald Trump with former wife Ivana as they stood on their luxury yacht The
Trump Princess in New York City. Trump paid the Sultan of Brunei $30
million for the nearly 300-foot yacht.]Marty Lederhandler/AP Photo
A file photo from July 1988 showing real estate developer Donald Trump with
former wife Ivana as they stood on their luxury yacht The Trump Princess in
New York City. Trump paid the Sultan of Brunei $30 million for the nearly
300-foot yacht. more +

The same year, Trump was one of a number of celebrities identified in a New
York state investigation into a sales tax dodge by the Bulgari jewelry
store on Fifth Avenue. Store officials had been accused of selling
expensive items to celebrity customers, and then sending an empty box to an
out-of-state address so the customers would not have to pay New York sales
tax. News reports from the time said Trump bought a $65,000 item. A former
state prosecutor involved in the matter said Trump and others helped the
state build a case against the store, which they considered the more
serious violator.

When Trump struck a deal with New York City to build the Grand Hyatt Hotel,
it required that his partnership team return a portion of the hotel profits
to the city. But a 1989 audit found that his ownership team “understated
its net profit” by more than $5 million and deprived the city of its nearly
$3 million in unreported proceeds. Karen Burstein, the city auditor who
reviewed the Grand Hyatt financial books, said Trump personally approved of
decision to use different accounting rules to determine the money owed the
city.

“He cheated the city of a substantial amount of money,” Burstein told ABC
News. “This wasn't just a good business deal. This wasn't just business
thinking. This was manipulation... It was an example of extraordinary
flim-flammery.”
[image: PHOTO: Governor Hugh Carey points to an artists conception of the
new New York Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site
of the former Commordore Hotel, June 28, 1978. Donald Trump seen on the
left.]AP Photo
Governor Hugh Carey points to an artist's conception of the new New York
Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site of the
former Commordore Hotel, June 28, 1978. Donald Trump seen on the left.more +

At the time, lawyers for Trump and his partners blasted the audit, saying
it had “a hostile tone and ill-conceived bias throughout.” The audit, the
lawyers said in a response letter, “has more of the flavor of a political
position paper than of an objective audit report.”

In response to questions this week, Trump Organization officials said it
had long been determined -- and was noted in the hotel’s official response
to the audit -- that the real estate mogul “had virtually nothing to do
with the operation and maintenance of the hotel since shortly after its
construction.” But an attachment to the audit included an April 27, 1987
letter signed by Trump, in which he confirms his approval of the accounting.

ABC News sought further explanations from the Trump Organization about
other tax decisions made in these cases, but the organization declined to
provide information. “Not only do virtually all of the items go back
between 30 to 40 years, but they all appear to be based upon false
information,” said Alan Garten, Executive Vice President and General
Counsel of The Trump Organization.
[image: PHOTO: Donald Trump attends Trump National Golf Tournament, July
27, 2002, at Briarcliff Manor in Pleasantville, New York.]Ron
Galella/WireImage
Donald Trump attends Trump National Golf Tournament, July 27, 2002, at
Briarcliff Manor in Pleasantville, New York. more +

In Ossining, town officials said they plan to fight Trump’s claim that the
posh private golf club is worth only $1.35 million. They said Trump bought
the property for $8 million in a foreclosure sale, spent $45 million to
build the 18-hole course and 75,000-square-foot club house, and received
permits to build six hotel suites on the property with no increase in his
tax assessment. In fact, the town assessor said, the club already received
a 55 percent reduction -- from $38 million to $16 million -- in 2008.

“Look, everybody is looking to pay less in taxes,” said Levenberg, a
Democrat. “Personally I would hope that anybody that is representing our
country as President of the United States, would also be willing to pay
their own fair share of taxes on properties and on whatever it is on their
income. That's really in my opinion, what makes America great, is everybody
pitching in and doing their part.”

*Michael Birkrant and Zoe Lake contributed to this report.*

-- 

Adrienne K. Elrod
Director of Strategic Communications & Surrogates
Hillary For America
*www.hillaryclinton.com <http://www.hillaryclinton.com>*
@adrienneelrod