Difference between revisions of "Business overview"

Revision as of 00:03, 24 March 2017

Trump had a minimum net worth of $1.47 billion in July of 2016, according to his own financial disclosure forms. It should be noted that there are significant credibility problems with both of Trump's financial disclosure statements. Federal disclosure forms require the value and income of assets to be reported in broad ranges rather than exact amounts. Some of Trump's reported assets have no reported value but nevertheless produce very large streams of income. Federal officials rely on the candidate to be truthful and do not independently assess the accuracy of the disclosure reports.^[1] Trump has sought to lower the property taxes of many of his properties by arguing their actual values were far lower than the values he reported on his financial disclosure.^[2] In many instances, Trump appears to have reported the gross revenue of certain business interests rather than the personal income that he received through them.^[3]

Trump issued a public statement claiming his net worth was "ten billion dollars" shortly after filing his 2015 financial disclosure. Forbes estimated Trump's net worth at $4.5 billion in March of 2016.^[4] The total minimum value of reported assets in Trump's 2016 Financial Disclosure is $1,469,128,000 ($1.47 billion). In the present analysis, we will discuss assets as a percentage of Trump's minimum disclosed net worth. We have made this choice because every asset has a clearly defined minimum reported value, whereas maximum values cannot be established. As a general rule, RAGEPATH does not endorse taking Trump at his word.^[5] But for the limited purpose of laying out the relative distribution of his wealth by business category, we'll rely on information straight from the horse's mouth.

Citation Quotes

1. ↑ New York Times August 20, 2016

   “ The agency's procedures for staff members reviewing presidential submissions, a copy of which was obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, say the Office of Government Ethics does not audit reports for accuracy. “Disclosures are to be taken at ‘face value’ as correct, unless there is a patent omission or ambiguity or the official has independent knowledge of matters outside the report,” the procedures say. ” ↑ Washington Post, August 21, 2016 “ For eight of the 10 courses on which he pays taxes, Trump reported in his May filing to the Federal Election Commission that the courses were worth tens of millions of dollars even as his attorneys have pressed local tax officials to value the properties at a fraction of those amounts. ” ↑ New York Times, November 3, 2016 “ After expenses, some of his businesses make a small fraction of what he reported on his disclosure forms, or actually lose money. [...] Mr. Trump appears to have used a provision in federal ethics laws that allows business owners to list gross revenue, as opposed to net income after expenses, on their disclosure forms. ” ↑ Forbes, March 21, 2016 ↑ We will provide a more detailed discussion of contradictions in Trump's own reported assessments and discrepancies with independent analysts in another context.