White House adviser Jared Kushner “appears” to have paid no federal income taxes in several recent years, The New York Times reported Saturday based on “confidential financial documents” it had reviewed — despite Kushner Companies itself being profitable for Kushner and his father, and Kushner’s net worth having “quintupled to almost $324 million.”
Kushner achieved the feat through depreciation, an accounting process by which real estate investors are allowed to count the supposedly fallen value of their assets against what would be their tax obligation. When the documented loss in value is greater than taxable income, it’s called a “net operating loss.”
The Times — and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday — noted that Kushner doesn’t appear to have broken the law with the tax-avoiding maneuvers.
The Times revealed in 2016, based tax records of President Donald Trump’s it had obtained, that Trump had similarly used the tax laws governing net operating losses to avoid his federal tax bill, among other tactics. A lengthy, document-filled Times investigation this month found Trump had engaged in “outright fraud” to minimize the tax bill on the considerable amount his real estate mogul father passed along to him and his siblings.
In Kushner’s case, the depreciation took place despite Kushner Companies buying its properties with borrowed money.
“You get tax deductions for things you don’t pay for,” Jonathan Blattmachr of Pioneer Wealth Partners told the Times.
Read the Times’ full report here.
