Trump Avoids Taxes And Christie Lets Him Settle For Peanuts

Donald Trump’s casinos racked up millions of dollars in unpaid New Jersey state taxes from 2002 through 2006 by essentially not paying the alternative minimum tax. By the time Chris Christie became governor of New Jersey in January, 2010 that tax bill with interest had ballooned to nearly $30 million. By December of that same year, the state decide to settle with the Trump casinos for a mere $5 million, a pathetic 17 cents on the dollar that did not even cover the original tax bill, forgetting about the interest.

In 2002, the state of New Jersey instituted an alternative minimum tax specifically designed to prevent businesses from avoiding taxes through various accounting maneuvers. The Trump casinos somehow decided that the tax did not apply to them. In just the years 2002 and 2003, the state calculated nearly $9 million in unpaid taxes by those casinos. In typical Trump fashion, the casinos continued to fight paying these taxes in court and continued to fight even after bankruptcy in 2004. Subsequent investigations also showed some severe irregularities in the casinos’ other filing with the state. For instance, for 2003, the casinos reported paying $2.2 million in taxes to the State Gaming Commission when, in fact, they had only paid $500.00. The case continued to drag on and by 2009 the total amount owed including interest came to $29.4 million. But, within a year of Christie’s taking over as Governor, a deal was reached that reduced the payment to the mere $5 million. This was a much better deal that a subsequent tax amnesty plan that Christie offered in 2014 that offered delinquent taxpayers reduced penalties on the condition they caught up on back taxes and interest.

Christie claims he was unaware of the settlement and the details of how the agreement came about have not been disclosed. Christie and Trump became acquainted when Christie was a US Attorney in New Jersey in the early 2000s and they apparently became good friends over time. That friendship and the apparent mutual backscratching between the two helps explain Christie’s early endorsement of Trump after his own Presidential bid ended in failure.

The whole incident is another example of Trump’s modus operandi, which is simply not to pay what he is owed and force the creditor to pursue him for years in the court system. And it is also a prime example of another white-collar crime resulting in a weak punishment. It is hard to see how we can stop this kind of behavior if we continually allow people and businesses to essentially get away with it.