‘It’s insane’: Trump's Undocumented Workers Paid Thousands in Annual Taxes While the President Worked the System
‘It’s insane’: Undocumented Trump workers paid thousands in income tax while the president worked the system
A wave of emotions washed over Jesus Lira when
he found out that President Trump has only paid a few hundred dollars in
federal income taxes since the early 2000s.
© Tasos Katopodis U.S. President
Donald Trump golfs at Trump National Golf Club on June 21, 2020 in Potomac
Falls, Virginia.
“It was a little bit of everything — angry, sad,
confused,” said Lira, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who used to work as
a cook at Trump’s Westchester County golf club. “The president, my former boss,
isn’t paying any taxes. How is that even possible?”
© Provided by New York Daily News Jesus Lira in the kitchen at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Lira, who’s among dozens of undocumented ex-employees of Trump’s
company, was referring to a
Sunday report by the New York Times that revealed the president
paid just $750 per year in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 and no income
tax at all for 10 out of the previous 15 years.
Outraged by the bombshell report, Lira and three other
undocumented ex-Trump Organization workers provided the Daily News with records
this week showing that they paid tens of thousands of dollars in federal income
taxes while working for the president — despite their immigration status.
Sandra Diaz, one of the other former workers who provided
documents, said there are many more like them.
“Every single person who worked there who were undocumented paid
(taxes),” said Diaz, a Costa Rican native who was a housekeeper at Trump’s golf
club in Bedminster, N.J. “And then he pays nothing at all? I don’t understand.
He’s rich. He has to set an example for all the country.”
Diaz said she personally knows at least 30 more undocumented
immigrants who kept on top of their taxes every year while working for Trump’s
company.
© Provided by New York Daily News A
2011 W-2 form for Sandra Diaz from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster,
N.J.
A 2011 W-2 form for Sandra Diaz from the Trump
National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Anibal Romero, an attorney who represents more
than 20 undocumented ex-Trump workers, said Diaz’s count is accurate.
“The numerous undocumented immigrants who worked
for Trump pay more in taxes than Trump,” Romero said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere wouldn’t answer
detailed questions about Trump’s former employees but said in an email
Wednesday: “The New York Times report is fake news. The president has paid
millions of dollars in taxes.”
© Provided by New York Daily News W-2 forms for Jesus Lira from the Trump National Golf
Club in Westchester County.
Undocumented immigrants typically use fake Social Security
numbers or so-called Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to satisfy an
employer’s tax-related payroll requirements.
The Trump Organization, which did not return a request for
comment, fired Diaz, Lira and several dozen other undocumented workers last
year after The News and other outlets reported on their hiring practices. The
company has maintained it did not know of their illegal immigration status — a
claim denied by the workers.
According to W-2 forms reviewed by The News, Lira paid $29,366
in federal income taxes over the course of his 2008-2018 employment at the
Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Though his 2018 payments aren’t known, Trump likely only paid
$1,500 in federal income tax over the same period — $750 in 2016 and another
$750 in 2017, according to his personal tax returns obtained by the Times.
By contrast, Lira paid $5,099 in federal income tax in 2017
alone, having gotten a raise the year prior, according to his records.
“It’s just not right," Lira said of Trump’s minuscule tax
burden. “It’s insane."
© Provided by New York Daily News Attorney
Anibal Romero, center, with his clients Victorina Morales, left, and Sandra
Diaz.
Trump’s extraordinarily low tax rate was made possible by a
range of legally dubious accounting tricks, in which he claimed enormous
business deductions and losses that allowed him to keep his federal tax
liability at or close to $0 while still maintaining a life of luxury, according
to the Times.
Experts say some of Trump’s tax practices appear to border on
fraud.
“From writing off personal expenses, to inflating the value of
his properties to claim bogus charitable deductions, to claiming a $72 million
refund that he appears to have been ineligible for ... the Times investigation
has found many instances of Trump stepping over legal lines," said Seth
Hanlon, a former senior tax counsel for the House Budget Committee.
Victorina Morales, one of Diaz’s fellow former housekeepers at
the Trump club in Bedminster, is another immigrant who provided The News with a
W-2 form.
The form shows Morales paid $2,296 in federal income tax in 2017
while working for the president.
© Provided by New York Daily News A 2017 W-2
for Victorina Morales.
For her part, Diaz, who has obtained legal immigration status
since leaving the Trump club in 2013, paid at least $1,423 in federal income
tax over the course of her three-year employment, according to W-2 forms.
Jorge Castro, an undocumented former worker for one of Trump’s
construction companies, gave The News a W-2 showing that he paid $5,332 in
income tax in 2014 while working for the president.
Like Lira, Diaz said she was shocked when she first learned of
Trump’s tax dodging.
“He’s rich because he used immigrants and then used immigrants
again to make him president by attacking us," she said.
But Diaz said there’s also a bright side to the tax revelations.
“I’m angry, but I’m really happy also, because the people know
now who he is,” she said. “People know with proof that he’s a liar now.”
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