Jared Kushner used paper losses to minimise his taxes, report says

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, paid almost no federal income taxes in several recent years despite a ballooning net worth and billions of dollars spent building his real estate empire, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Citing confidential financial records, The Times reported that Kushner, a senior White House adviser, for years minimised his tax bills by booking heavy losses on reported depreciation of his real estate holdings that overwhelmed his reported income.

The Times noted that nothing in the documents indicate that Kushner or his company broke the law.

In a 2015 example, Kushner booked US$8.3 million in losses driven by “significant depreciation” of real estate owned by Kushner and his company. The loss offset Kushner’s income of US$1.7 million in salary and investment gains, The Times reported.

More than a dozen tax accountants and lawyers reviewed the records for The Times. One told the newspaper that the records indicated that Kushner paid little or no federal income taxes in five of the past eight years.

The documents reviewed by the newspaper describe Kushner’s business dealings and finances from 2009 to 2016. They were drafted with Kushner’s participation as part of a review of his finances by a prospective lender and contain information from his federal tax filings in addition to other data provided by advisers, according to The Times.

The records were given to the newspaper by “a person who has had financial dealings with Kushner and his family,” it said.

A spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer told The Times that Kushner followed the advice of lawyers and accountants, and filed and paid all taxes required by law. The spokesman also said he would not respond to assumptions taken from documents that offer an incomplete view of Kushner’s finances, the paper said.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Abbe Lowell, Kushner’s lawyer, could not be reached for comment Saturday.