Republicans Let Trump Keep Unparalleled Benefit: I.R.S. Immunity
Even as he bowed to Republican demands to pare back the extraordinary benefits the Justice Department offered to President Trump and his allies this spring, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, would only go so far.
Mr. Blanche did, after weeks of back and forth, put in writing that he was ending the $1.8 billion fund created to pay people who say they have been targeted by Democratic officials. And as part of the same announcement Sunday night, Mr. Blanche clarified that there were, actually, some limits on the seemingly boundless protection from I.R.S. examination that he ordered up for Mr. Trump, his family and their businesses.
But the fact remains that Mr. Trump, a billionaire who has tangled with the I.R.S. throughout his life, no longer has to worry about the agency coming after him for any of the many aggressive tax positions he has taken over the years. Where the I.R.S. previously made a point of regularly auditing whoever occupies the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to.
There’s no question that such immunity, itself without precedent, will be immensely valuable for Mr. Trump. But exactly how much in additional taxes and penalties he can now avoid is unclear. I.R.S. audits are, in general, confidential. Just one dispute Mr. Trump had with the agency, previously revealed by The New York Times, could have cost him more than $100 million. Any other ongoing audits could have cost him even more.
Mr. Blanche did, after weeks of back and forth, put in writing that he was ending the $1.8 billion fund created to pay people who say they have been targeted by Democratic officials. And as part of the same announcement Sunday night, Mr. Blanche clarified that there were, actually, some limits on the seemingly boundless protection from I.R.S. examination that he ordered up for Mr. Trump, his family and their businesses.
But the fact remains that Mr. Trump, a billionaire who has tangled with the I.R.S. throughout his life, no longer has to worry about the agency coming after him for any of the many aggressive tax positions he has taken over the years. Where the I.R.S. previously made a point of regularly auditing whoever occupies the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to.
There’s no question that such immunity, itself without precedent, will be immensely valuable for Mr. Trump. But exactly how much in additional taxes and penalties he can now avoid is unclear. I.R.S. audits are, in general, confidential. Just one dispute Mr. Trump had with the agency, previously revealed by The New York Times, could have cost him more than $100 million. Any other ongoing audits could have cost him even more.
