Tuesday 1 November 2016

Packer on Trump’s taxes

 

There are many reasons to dislike Donald Trump’s candidacy for the job falsely-billed as the most powerful in the world. Minimising his taxes is not among them.

The late Kerry Packer explained why some years ago to a bunch of Australian politicians gathered to investigate his own alleged misdeeds.

 

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8 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

Brilliant.

Barry said...

I don't think you understand the nature of Trump's tax controversy.

He solicited a vast amount of money from investors, then lost it through reckless incompetence. The debt was written off via chapter 11 - what this meant is that while the investors could kiss their money goodbye, Trump could use their lost money to give himself a massive tax deduction. That's appalling crony capitalism.

Simon said...

Declassified intelligence documents at the US National Archives show that one of Hitler's closest confidantes opened the accounts at the Union Bank of Switzerland in Bern after the Fuhrer's book became required reading in German schools.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/discovered-hitlers-secret-swiss-bank-account-1361935.html

Very very scary.

Someone must stop Hitler umm I mean Trump before it is too late.

MarkT said...

Regardless of the specifics, and regardless of private individuals he may have ripped off - the gist of the allegations against him are not that nuanced, and are simply critical because he minimized the tax he had to pay.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh..., but was it legal? If legal, you can't complain because a blowhard takes money off suckers, loses it and subsequently takes advantage of the laws that apply. It comes back to politicians pretending they know stuff and can make it all good if only you trust them.

The Packer video reminds me of the Howard Hughes witch hunt after WW2. That attempt to stitch Hughes up was the most entertaining part of the film "The Aviator".

3:16

Barry said...

@3:16 It's legal because people like Trump lobbied for it i.e. crony capitalism (and even then it was legally shady).

Trump hasn't been satisfied with the existing laws in his favour; he has lobbied relentlessly for more legislation that would benefit him at the expense of others. Imagine how much worse things will get if he becomes president.

MarkT said...

Watching this video brings some memories back from my youth, when I lived in Australia and this performance from Kerry was big news and gained widespread support. I recall even then in my tender years, thinking there was an important lesson in this. Here were bureaucrats, who we'd be taught to fear out on a witch-hunt, up against one man who didn't cower, and said exactly what he thought - and the result was the bureaucrats stumbling and switching from attack mode to defensive mode. Also enlightening was the respect he gained from unlikely quarters by being honest and genuine. It was glorious to see.

Anonymous said...

So its legal - suck it up. Trump can only ask. It takes a bushel of other political idiots to make it actually happen. Don't think I support Trump or politicians generally either but the fact is that the latter group seems to stuff everything up.

3:16