President Trump’s tax returns are once again the highlight of Tuesday night’s debate, where he will face Democratic nominee Joe Biden for the first time.

On Sunday, the New York Times published the first of a series of articles based on Trump’s tax returns, which brought documents and tax knowledge spanning two decades and revealed that he had had small federal tax expenses and significant monetary losses in his business career. of their tax maneuvers have been subject to legal review.

USA TODAY contacted tax attorneys and legal experts to get their answer. Without Trump’s tax returns, they still don’t know exactly how much he paid or didn’t pay taxes.

However, if Trump paid little or nothing in taxes, it would seem that he was politically participating in a close contest on Election Day, they said. But that doesn’t mean you’ve done anything because you may have used the U. S. tax code to your advantage. they added.

From legality investigations to questionable inferences, here are things to remember:

Trump’s tax returns show he has company: how rich Americans tax

Wallets or payout checks?

One thing that has caught the attention of experts is that Trump has generated significant losses in the industry while canceling massive expenses, according to the New York Times report. In 2016, Trump paid just $750 at the federal source of income taxes and paid an additional $750 in his first year at the White House.

They can certainly manipulate the tax code to minimize their tax obligations, according to Francine Lipman, tax expert and professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas School of Law.

“These tax returns are competitive. Satan is in the details, but we don’t have all the details,” Lipman says. “That doesn’t mean it’s tax evasion. But Trump is taking very competitive positions. “

Some tax and legal experts have their consulting fees. Trump has canceled $26 million in unexplained “consultation fees” as trade spending between 2010 and 2018, the New York Times reported.

Big bills in industry agreements can sound alarm bells, especially in places where “bribes or bribes to intermediaries are common,” the New York Times said. But the report found no evidence that Trump had participated in such practices.

One imaginable explanation for at least some of the fees was that Trump “reduced his taxable source of income by treating a circle of family members as a representative and then deducting the fees as a charge for doing business,” according to the report. showed that nearly $750,000 went to Ivanka Trump, his daughter. The New York Times suggests this could violate tax laws.

Another thing that has piqued the interest of Trump experts, a genuine real estate developer, is that Trump Corporation, a genuine real estate company, has reported wasting $134 million since 2000, according to the New York Times.

Dan Geltrude, CPA, tax specialist and founder of accounting firm Geltrude

Investment properties, for example, gain advantages from a depreciation deduction, according to Geltrude, which can be really extensive and particularly decrease taxable income. So it’s not that Trump doesn’t have income, he’s probably taxed through depreciation. “Geltrude said.

“There are tactics for paying low taxes. It’s not Trump’s fault. Blame the IRS tax code for that,” Geltrude says. “It’s moderate that you need to restrict what you’ll pay in taxes like everyone else would. “

While depreciation would possibly cause some of Trump’s losses, it may not yet cover all of his losses, Lipman said.

Toby Mathis, a spouse and lawyer for Anderson Law Group in Las Vegas, Nevada, argued that Trump is benefiting from tax incentives.

“Trump is doing precisely what Congress needs him to do,” Mathis said. “If you are a businessman and are willing to take risks, get tax benefits. Why give them? Because many other people will. ” hired to carry out the projects. “

Audit questions arise

Another thing involving tax experts in the 10-year audit war between Trump and the IRS, which stems from a $72. 9 million refund he claimed in 2010 after reporting massive losses in recent years.

Experts are concerned that combat could put him in a possible clash of interests as president.

During the housing crisis, Trump suffered significant losses on real estate, but was able to use them to offset the taxes he had paid years earlier when he was in “The Apprentice” and generated large taxable incomes, he said.

Trump even received help from President Obama. To mitigate the consequences of the Great Recession, Obama and Congress have made those “returns of net operating losses” more beneficial by allowing taxpayers to come with more years to inspire corporations to reverse the recession. Lipman said.

Trump was given a “quick refund,” according to Lipman, designed by Congress to give troubled companies a quick injection of money.

But I would probably have to pay more than $100 million in the occasion of an adverse decision. This considers tax experts because it turns out to have money problems, according to the New York Times report.

“Trump’s IRS audit has stagnated for a decade and we don’t know what’s going on,” Lipman said. “This is an existing president who elects the IRS Commissioner and Treasury Secretary and owes potentially $100 million. It smells like a clash of interest. “

According to the New York Times report, some questioned whether Trump is as rich as he claims. However, tax returns will not provide your net worth, according to Geltrude, but they will show what generates your source of income and what you own, he says. .

Joshua Jenson, managing partner at CPA Jenson

“It’s hard to know a person’s net worth from tax returns,” Jenson says. “But if you have corporate tax returns, you can see the assets and liabilities, which necessarily shows the net worth of that business. But only in an accounting way, not in fair market value. “

Another thing that stood out from the experts is that Trump spent more than $70,000 to test his hair, and pointed it out as a professional expense when he appeared in “The Apprentice,” according to the New York Times.

This would possibly be a wonder for some Americans who might not realize that commercial homeowners are more free than workers to deduct certain expenses. Most workers, for example, would not deduct haircut fees, says Phil Hackney, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“In general, tax courts prohibit haircuts as a deduction for the vast majority of other people because it’s a non-public expense,” Hackney says.

Although perhaps for Trump.

“Trump can simply claim that he is the logo and that everything in him is a business, and in this way he must deduce everything from himself, adding his haircuts. “

This is contrary to the concept of an income tax source, Hackney argued, which in theory attempts to tax non-public expenditures well.

“If you find tactics to deduct all the corporate stock you do, then an income tax source has been eliminated,” Hackney says. “It creates genuine disorders because workers can’t do that. He has uncovered tactics to deduce the things everyone will pay taxes on. “