Patterico's Pontifications

7/8/2019

Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Allowing Release Of Trump’s State Tax Returns

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:42 am



[guest post by Dana]

From the New York Times:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed a bill on Monday to allow congressional committees to access the president’s state tax returns.

The bill requires state tax officials to release the president’s state returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose” on the request of the chair of one of three congressional committees: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

It is effective immediately, though it is unclear whether it would be challenged by the Trump administration, or used by the congressional committees; the Ways and Means Committee, for instance, has said previously that it remains focused on pursuing Mr. Trump’s federal tax information.

Still, the state tax documents from New York — the president’s home state and business headquarters — would likely contain much of the same information as the contested federal returns, tax experts say.

Just last week, the President went after both Cuomo and NY attorney general, Letitia James:

Without mentioning Ms. James by name, the president said she was “harassing all of my New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible.”

Ms. James’s office is investigating the financing behind several major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014, and has issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank.

After Mr. Trump’s tirade, Mr. Cuomo responded, “If he is worried about law enforcement, he shouldn’t break the law.”

Responding to accusations made by Republicans that this is an invasion of privacy, Cuomo said in a statement:

Mr. Cuomo agreed that “tax secrecy is paramount,” with, however, “the exception being for bona fide investigative and law enforcement purposes.”

The White House has not publicly responded to this latest development, and President Trump hasn’t tweeted about it. Yet.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

48 Responses to “Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Allowing Release Of Trump’s State Tax Returns”

  1. Good morning. Quick Q: Is Trump still being audited…???

    Dana (bb0678)

  2. Several minutes of Trump promising to release his tax returns

    Comedy gold!

    Is Trump still being audited…???

    Nobody has ever seen an audit letter. Michael Cohen testified that he had never been able to obtain a copy of one, despite asking repeatedly.

    Dave (1bb933)

  3. Exactly, Dave!

    Dana (bb0678)

  4. The last few months, I was involved in obtaining tax returns for two individuals and one corporation. After a lot of effort, the IRS agreed to release them, but then told us the years we needed were too old and they did not have them anymore. So we then went to the NYS Dept. of Taxation, and then got them after a lot of effort.

    The individual NYS return has a great deal of info that copies the federal return (you have to provide the same info as declared on your federal return), AND you have to attach the federal returns or at least the Schedules.

    On the corporate side, you have to attach the full federal returns.

    So if you get someone’s NYS returns, you are basically getting the full picture told to the IRS.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  5. The article implies that originally the bill was only aimed at the President, but because of possible legal challenges, it was broadened to include an array of public officials. Anyone know what the scope of the final signed bill is?

    It seems to me that a law aimed solely at the President would be problematic, while one aimed at public officials in general (however defined) less so.

    To put it differently, is Gov. Cuomo okay with his tax records being subpoenaed by a Congressional or state legislative committee? If not, why not?

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  6. It sounds to me like there’s probable cause, not only with regard to Trump but also the NRA and others, to investigate the New York goombahs for conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of law.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. Here is the rather laughable “documentation” provided by the Trump campaign back in 2016. This was posted on the Trump campaign website on March 31, 2016. It’s a letter, not from the IRS, but from his own tax lawyers, claiming:

    Your personal tax returns have been under continuous examination by the Internal Revenue Service since 2002, consistent with the IRS’s practice for large and complex businesses.

    So he is not, actually, under any kind of audit as the term is usually understood. It is just the normal process of review.

    Basically this is a financial version of the fake “doctor’s statement” he wrote for himself back in 2016, touting his “astonishingly excellent” test results, and purporting to be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

    (*) The original document is no longer on the Trump website. When you try to navigate to a broken link on that site, they send you to a page showing a photoshop of Hillary standing in front of the presidential podium with the message “Sorry, you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.” I know the resident cultists will enjoy that, so I figured I should point it out…

    Dave (1bb933)

  8. Trump IS under audit and has been since 2017. The President, as in “that guy in the White House”, gets audited every year.

    Wanna go hunting where the ducks are or what? It’s not like Patterico hasn’t put up a post or two about it relatively recently too.

    nk (dbc370)

  9. From FOX News:

    When the New York bill was making its way through the state legislature, Cuomo indicated he would sign it, provided it applied to everyone and not just Trump. While the bill does meet that standard, critics believed it to be unconstitutional because it was motivated by a desire to specifically target Trump. The Constitution prohibits what is known as a “bill of attainder,” or a law that singles out an individual person for punishment.

    The bill itself does not make any reference to Trump or any other person, but Democrats like state Sen. Brad Hoylman, who sponsored a version of the bill, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., specifically mentioned Trump in reference to the legislation. Nadler described it in the context of House Democrats’ quest to get Trump’s tax returns, calling it “a workaround to a White House that continues to obstruct and stonewall the legitimate oversight work of Congress.”

    Dana (bb0678)

  10. This is from Gov. Cuomo’s press release:

    Specifically the bill amends section 697 of the Tax Law (Personal Income Tax) to add a new subsection directing the Commissioner of the Department of Taxation and Finance to share state income tax returns and reports upon the written request of the Chairperson of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation. The Commissioner is required to redact any information that, if disclosed, would violate state or federal law or would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (e.g. social security numbers, account numbers, and residential address information).

    Such request must be accompanied by certification that the tax returns or reports have been requested for a specified and legitimate legislative purpose, the requesting committee has made a written request to the U.S Secretary of the Treasury for related federal returns or return information and that the returns will be treated by the requesting committee in a manner consistent with federal law authorizing the same committees to request and receive federal income tax returns from the U.S. Treasury.

    Here is Section 697.

    Dana (bb0678)

  11. It would also be ex post facto, if I were the judge. The applicable law would be the law at the time the return was filed.

    nk (dbc370)

  12. The applicable law would be the law at the time the return was filed.

    You mean the one Trump and his henchmen are just ignoring?

    Dave (1bb933)

  13. To wit:

    (f)Disclosure to Committees of Congress
        (1)Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on Finance, and Joint Committee on Taxation

    Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request

    Dave (1bb933)

  14. Yes, that one. That’s hunting in season.

    nk (dbc370)

  15. Perhaps this release will be aborted at the very last minute.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  16. Dave has his very snazzy stasi uniform, all pressed and shiny,

    narciso (d1f714)

  17. Your papers, please.

    Dave (1bb933)

  18. He’s right on top of The Lives of Others, ain’t he…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  19. Trump Derangement Syndrome runs deep and wide in New York.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  20. Does anyone see how politically caustic this can get?

    What’s to stop a red-state from doing the same thing, and asking the GOP controlled Senate to go after Democrat congressional critters?

    whembly (fd57f6)

  21. because there would be a boycott against that state, you know how this works,

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. @1/@2. A fitting musical interlude:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E878ehudHg

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  23. To put it differently, is Gov. Cuomo okay with his tax records being subpoenaed by a Congressional or state legislative committee? If not, why not?

    Well, as far as I know Andrew Cuomo never explained how he made big money in royalties on a book that sold a piddling number of copies, and he never made public a copy of the contract he signed with the — you guessed it! — New York-based publisher. So I don’t think we can conclude that he’s really big on full disclosure where his own interests are concerned.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  24. I think Congressman Richard Neal, The Chairman of the House ways and Means Committee, has said he isn’t interested in using this authority (and also that’s probably why Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill.)

    He wants the federal tax return. And his “legitimate” purpose (to see how well the IRS auduted Trump’s returns) doesn’t involve his New York State taxes. That would help answer other questions.

    Here’s a link:

    https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/house-committee-chairman-seems-concerned-about-requesting-trumps-state-tax-returns

    Where this would really be used is in an impeachment inquiry.

    Certain information, notably Social Security numbers, financial account numbers and home addresses is to be redacted. It aplies to presidents and a number of other high ranking officials plus people involved in politics but I didn’t quickly find the specific list.

    Sammy Finkelman (a738e8)

  25. and that the returns will be treated by the requesting committee in a manner consistent with federal law authorizing the same committees to request and receive federal income tax returns from the U.S. Treasury.

    That means they sort of have to promise not to break the rules.

    By the way, it’s only tax writing committtees that can have it. So impeachment wouldn’t be agrounds.

    So, theoretically, it’s on;y to examine how tax law handled things.

    This law is actually a big nothing.

    Sammy Finkelman (a738e8)

  26. Actually, it’s Trump Deification Syndrome that runs deep and wide. And it comes from Donald J. Trump himself, who thinks his middle initial stands for Jesus.

    Pseudo-Dionysus is the prime example of the false prophet. This guy would take a hatched swan egg, place a snake inside it, then glue the shell pieces back together. He would hide this egg in a field, then go around telling people he had a vision. He would lead them to the field, crack open the egg, and when the snake came crawling out proclaim it a miracle. In this way, he convinced the deluded crowd to build a shrine, then pay him alms for telling prophecies.

    L. Ron Hubbard used that exact design to form the “church” of Scientology, because he knew, as he said, religion is where the money is. It’s a cult, but it made him rich.

    It’s the same with all these other televangelical preachers and their mega-churches, using religion to enrich themselves. Trump is no different.

    He’s managed to build a cult following, and it’s infected the GOP. He is not a real estate developer. He’s never developed a property in his life. I know that, because I work with actual real estate developers. Trump is a name-brand seller. That’s what he is, that’s what he does. He licenses his brand name to developers, and when they go bankrupt, he declares their losses as personal profits on his tax returns.

    That was the loophole in the tax code Weisselberg exploited for years, to protect the family fortune. He was hired by father Fred to protect the family fortune from the idiotic business ventures of his stupid son. All of them were failures. The father knows his son.

    Since Donald J. Trump took over the company or organization, he has been subject to thousands of lawsuits, most of which he settled. After short-changing his contractors and bankrupting his investors.

    When Congress closed the tax loophole, Trump had nowhere to hide. All of his business attempts had failed, his hotel/casino/strip clubs were bankrupt; no bank in America or on Wall Street would loan him any money, and so he turned the Deutsche and foreign oligarchs for funding of his fraud.

    Obviously, there is something in his tax returns he doesn’t want exposed. Most likely, it’s that he’s not as rich and successful as he has led his cult to believe.

    Trump is a total fraud. He will be exposed as such. The more the GOP invests in him, the more bankrupt they become, morally.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  27. Obviously, there is something in his tax returns he doesn’t want exposed. Most likely, it’s that he’s not as rich and successful as he has led his cult to believe.

    I’m not sure I buy that.

    What’s more likely?
    – that he and his companies are shandy as all hell and likely broke tax laws, yet was able to dodge the tax man after all these years while being a highly public socialite?

    or
    – being the man child that he is, he’s being a stubborn mule who won’t give in to his adversary because they simply want it.

    whembly (fd57f6)

  28. “He’s managed to build a cult following, and it’s infected the GOP.“

    Trump has sent millions of troubled people off their rockers and suffering delirium in the throes of a Derangement Syndrome so severe there’s no known cure for it.

    Colonel Haiku (0e0056)

  29. Trump was promised confidentiality when he filed his tax returns, the same as all of us. This is just more harassment from people who are unable to deal with reality, e.g., the November 2016 election results.

    Screw all these crazed lefties and NeverTrump gimps.

    Colonel Haiku (0e0056)

  30. Sad coronello, theres no medication for that.

    Narciso (23765c)

  31. Of course, Trump could have avoided all this by simply releasing his tax returns just like the presidents before him…

    Dana (bb0678)

  32. Meh, they’d just transition to the next ginned-up POS “crime”.

    Colonel Haiku (0e0056)

  33. LOL

    Dave (55e817)

  34. I recall the IRS was hacked some years ago, so much for info security,

    Narciso (23765c)

  35. (*) The original document is no longer on the Trump website. When you try to navigate to a broken link on that site, they send you to a page showing a photoshop of Hillary standing in front of the presidential podium with the message “Sorry, you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.” I know the resident cultists will enjoy that, so I figured I should point it out…

    Speaking as a noncultist, I think that’s a great bit of humor.

    Kishnevi (df17af)

  36. whembly (fd57f6) — 7/8/2019 @ 2:14 pm

    Both can be true at once.
    I suspect the actual answer involves a good deal of tax avoidance edging into tax evasion, and money laundering that involves a paper trail too complicated to be usable as proof.

    Regarding Trump’s obstinancy, well, that’s a given by now.

    Kishnevi (df17af)

  37. I’m giving four to one that part of the wheeling and dealing to get this crap passed was the understanding that once they got Trump’s returns it would be repealed.

    nk (dbc370)

  38. oh i’m sure that was the promise, but once they’ve had a taste,

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. whembly (fd57f6) — 7/8/2019 @ 2:14 pm

    Both can be true at once.
    I suspect the actual answer involves a good deal of tax avoidance edging into tax evasion, and money laundering that involves a paper trail too complicated to be usable as proof.

    Regarding Trump’s obstinancy, well, that’s a given by now.

    Kishnevi (df17af) — 7/8/2019 @ 2:48 pm

    Eh… you’re right about that.

    I just find it a wee bit difficult to believe that a billionaire, whose company declared multiple bankrupties, would be able to “trick” both the US IRS and NY’s IRS of any wrongdoing. He’s the ideal target to ensure that things are by the book. Know what I mean?

    The government’s bandwith is finite, so someone like Trump would definitely be on the IRS’ radar since he has money that would theoretically be recouped.

    whembly (4605df)

  40. so someone like Trump would definitely be on the IRS’ radar since he has money that would theoretically be recouped.

    But if those who think Trump’s net worth is much less than he claims are correct, the IRS and the state Dept of Revenue would know there is not much to levy on.

    At the very least we know that Trump has extensive overseas holdings and uses holding companies and shell corporations in many deals. Which would muck up all paper trails and place some of Trump’s finances outside the reach of any US tax authority.

    Kishnevi (dfca54)

  41. It’s good to see Cuomo has his priorities straight. Continue to contribute his share of killing millions of babies up to actual birth and TDS virtue signal

    Colonel Haiku (0e0056)

  42. “Actually, it’s Trump Deification Syndrome that runs deep and wide. And it comes from Donald J. Trump himself, who thinks his middle initial stands for Jesus.”

    No, tens of millions of people are enjoying work opportunities, wage increases, tax reductions… some are even enjoying retirement 😉 … and many are entertained by the TDS-related symptoms of teeth gnashing, rending of garments and cries of despair emanating from disgruntled NeverTrumpettes and Democrats.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  43. That manure from your stable is “terrific” for roses and tomatoes, too. It’s still manure.

    nk (dbc370)

  44. Whereas the Washington post and the times arent even good to train puppies, without a rash.

    Narciso (23765c)

  45. 28, Gawain’s Ghost (b25cd1) — 7/8/2019 @ 2:05 pm

    He licenses his brand name to developers, and when they go bankrupt, he declares their losses as personal profits on his tax returns.

    You can’t turn any kind of losses into profits.

    What he did was turn other people’s losses into his own and subtrac it from income.

    The losses are taken in advance (depreciation – part of he cost of investment) Very little of that money was his own. It was borrowed. Then when the whole prject fails, the debt that he did not pay back – are not added back to his income. One way this was done was to convert det into equity.

    Sammy Finkelman (6e331b)


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