(04-09-2019 10:20 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(04-09-2019 09:17 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(04-09-2019 08:28 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  My understanding is that Trump DC is “owned” by the Trump Organization, which Donald Trump still owns. I saw “owned” because the Trump organization leases the building from the GSA.

But you are making a flawed assumption that the Trump Organization is Donald Trump. It isn't. How do I know? Because no competent tax lawyer or CPA would allow a client to do that. And I assume that Donald Trump received competent tax and business advice, Michael Cohen notwithstanding.

Cohen prettify obviously had a specific role to play. You don't build anything commercial in the northeast, particularly not casinos in Atlantic City, without having to deal with a lot of unsavory characters, between the unions and the mob (which may, in many cases, be one in the same). I suspect that he has a lot of dirt, or at least pseudo dirt--situations where he was told to "take care of" things and he would be reimbursed. But I doubt any of that dirt sticks on Donald Trump.

But back to his tax advice. With any kind of competent planning, the Trump Organization is a network of entities with all sorts of ownership structures--common stock, preferred stock, S Corps, partnerships (probably LPs), and LLCs, plus foreign ownership entities for foreign properties. To what extent Donald Trump individually got anything from any of of them would be difficult to trace.

Per Morgan Lewis, Trump is the sole or principal owner of all entities included in the Trump Organization.

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/Tax_Doc.pdf