Donald Trump has not released his tax returns. The recent New York Times dissection of some of his other financial documents gives the clearest explanation yet of why that might be: The man is crooked, his father was crooked, his whole family is crooked and handing those returns over to a free press that Donald and his fellow kleptocrats does not control will result in him being exposed as, well, crooked.
What we do know is that Donald Trump, being both wealthy and a real estate tycoon, for some questionable value of tycoon, is going to be benefitting enormously from the tax cuts for the wealthy that he and his fellow Republicans shoved into being last year. Those gains go directly into his pocket.
It also looks like he's going to benefit from his own signed legislation even more than we suspected, says CREW.
[A]nother lucrative loophole, one designed precisely for businesses that are organized as pass-throughs and make money abroad, has largely escaped notice. President Trump has numerous foreign-based entities, such as DJ Aerospace Limited incorporated in Bermuda, Turnberry Scotland LLC incorporated in Turnberry, Scotland, TIGL Ireland Enterprises Limited incorporated in Doonbeg, Ireland, and THC Barra Hotelaria TLDA incorporated in Brazil, are likely Subchapter S Corporations, which means that this loophole will almost certainly directly benefit him.
This new loophole allows shareholders of pass-through entities to pay zero tax indefinitely on their foreign income.
Indefinitely in this case means indefinitely; so long as the Subchapter S corporation exists and the shareholders do not transfer those shares to others, that money will not be taxed.
CREW notes that this change "appears to have flown under the radar," unmentioned in Republicans' public statements but tucked into the bill late and without notice. But it's a windfall for the Trump family in specific, which has bet heavily on foreign resorts like Turnberry and which just so happens to have a lot of plant-like heirs who have forever leeched off papa and don't want to be forced into day jobs after he finally kicks the bucket.
Presuming there's any money to be had, by that time. Given Trump's business record, merely giving them top-notch tax breaks isn't going to help if he's already blown all the money.