While the explanation is complicated, it boils down to this: a lender apparently "forgave" $50 million of a $100 million loan to Trump for a Chicago real estate development. That means, after the forgiveness, he only owed $50 million of the original $100 million.
But when a lender forgives all or part of a loan, the forgiven part is considered taxable income for IRS purposes. That means Trump would owe taxes -- as much as 39 percent -- on the $50 million.
But what Trump apparently did was have the lender "sell" the forgiven part of the loan to him as a way to disguise the forgiveness in order to hide it from the IRS.
Trump then "owns" a loan that he also owes, making him both the borrower and the lender. And both he and his company representatives have made clear there's no intent to repay or resell that loan.
And that is tax fraud.
Hopefully the House of Representatives will soon be all over this. But, of course, we can expect no action from the Senate.
Is it an issue that can be used against Trump in the 2020 election? Possibly, but the explanation is rather complicated so it may fly over many people's heads.
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