Red flags in Trump taxes include private jet costs, payments to his children, questionable expenses

Dozens of audit triggers litter Donald Trump’s tax returns, according to Congress’s top non-partisan tax lawyers: questionable private jet expenses, large unsubstantiated charitable deductions and dubious payments to the former president’s children, among others.

Yet none of them have been seriously audited, according to a new report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that reveals information Trump has fought to keep secret for years.

The analysis from the Joint Committee found that Trump was able to use questionable deductions and aggressive tax strategies to minimise his tax bills. The data also showed that Trump and his businesses lost tens of millions of dollars while he was running for president and after he entered the White House.

Among the items the report says should merit scrutiny are tens of millions of dollars in deductions claimed by Trump and his companies, including for business expenses incurred while president and US$126.5 million in write-offs over five years tied to sales from an entity that didn’t appear to be selling anything.

Another issue flagged was a US$21.1 million deduction for a conservation easement at Trump’s Seven Springs property in New York’s Westchester County. That issue has been the subject of a fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier this year, which Trump has dismissed as a political attack.

In a release late on Tuesday, House Democrats said Trump’s resistance to transparency – as well as the Internal Revenue Service’s lackadaisical approach to its policy of annual audits for presidents – are to blame for the former leader potentially breaking US tax laws that he took an oath to uphold.