A bombshell New York Times piece reveals that thanks to a tax loophole, Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner who is worth an estimated $324 million, has not paid any federal income taxes from 2009 to 2016–seven years. While this is shocking to most Americans who feel saddled with federal income taxes on their incomes that are significantly lower than Kushner’s, the sad reality is that Kushner may not have broken any tax laws. He is just doing what most wealthy Americans do–taking advantage of loopholes in the nation’s tax laws to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
The biggest takeaway from this bombshell New York Times piece is therefore not the fact that rich Kushner has not paid federal income taxes in 7 years but that these shocking tax loopholes that favor the uber wealthy even exist in the first place. In other words going forward, it is very important that the New York Times and other mainstream media titans expose how wealthy people, usually Republicans, manipulate tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share while at the same time saddling the poor and middle class with significant tax burdens.
According to the New York Times piece, the specific tax loophole Kushner manipulated allows real estate investors to use the depreciation on their assets (real estate) to write off their taxable incomes. Yours Truly is not a tax expert and therefore not at liberty to go into the weeds of real estate tax law, but it certainly appears from the New York Times piece that rich real estate investors look at their taxable income and then make up depreciation amounts on their property that either significantly reduces or totally wipes out their taxable income–in essence cheating the system.The mainstream media has a duty to expose more about this tax loophole for the benefit of the regular tax payers who dutifully pay their federal income taxes. One of the biggest failings of the mainstream media is that they break stories like these that have great national significance only to get distracted by the next Trump Tweet or rally. There is usually very little or no follow up on great stories like these that are very important to grassroots voters.
Sickening!! Everyday citizens struggle to make ends meet and pay taxes, and these people skate past the f***ing IRS???? https://t.co/ViPVomebG7
— Michelle Lutz (@Meeshalu) October 14, 2018
Bottom line we can all agree that everyone needs to pay their fair share of federal income taxes. When someone like Jared Kushner who is worth an estimated $324 million does not pay any federal income taxes in 7 years, all reasonable people will agree that the system is broken and needs to be fixed.
For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out
It’s disgusting. That loophole definitely needs to be fixed immediately!