Oh my stars and garters, The Failing New York Times has some ground breaking reporting. The title of the article “Kushner Paid No Federal Income Tax for Years, Documents Suggest” is designed to make you sure that Trump-in-Law, Jared Kushner is a tax cheat. The New York Post titled it’s article, “Jared Kushner May Have Dodged Paying Federal Taxes For Years”. Good gravy breathtaking news. Except it’s not breathtaking or even skirting the law. Clickbait for the Democrats and “Never Trumpers”.

Here are the opening paragraphs from The Failing New York Times:

Over the past decade, Jared Kushner’s family company has spent billions of dollars buying real estate. His personal stock investments have soared. His net worth has quintupled to almost $324 million.

And yet, for several years running, Mr. Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser — appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes, according to confidential financial documents reviewed by The New York Times.

Okay first of all, in the United States, we are not taxed on net worth (what you own minus what you owe). Listing Kushner’s net worth and the fact that it has nearly quintupled in a decade is merely a ploy to make the small minded totally jelly. That’s so low class of The Failing New York Times.

The next paragraph tells us how Jared Kushner “got away” with it:

His low tax bills are the result of a common tax-minimizing maneuver that, year after year, generated millions of dollars in losses for Mr. Kushner, according to the documents. But the losses were only on paper — Mr. Kushner and his company did not appear to actually lose any money. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year.

Did you catch that “common tax-minimizing maneuver”? Yes. Depreciation. And, yes, buildings do depreciate even as the may appreciate in value. Real estate depreciation can be fairly complex. But, depreciation itself is common to even the smallest business.

Pretend that you have a lawn mowing business and buy a mower to start up. Lawn mower photo: skitterphoto.com

So you are starting a lawn care company. You purchase a mower. You pay $1200 for the mower and figure that when it’s useful life is over in five years you can sell it for salvage for $200. Straight line depreciation would allow you to take $200 off of your taxes for this mower each year for the next five years. At the end of the five year period, you don’t have to sell the mower for salvage. It may still work perfectly fine and be the workhorse of your mowing company. You just cannot claim it on your taxes any longer.

In a far more complex and very legal fashion, taking advantage of every smart tax strategy is what the Kushner and Trump family businesses have done. Remember when candidate Donald Trump told candidate Hillary Clinton that it made him smart not to pay any Federal taxes?

That is what federal tax law is for, duh. Do you think Bill and Hillary Clinton pay one dime more in taxes than they have to pay. Don’t make me laugh.

Here is one more little tidbit from the Times article on Jared Kushner that I would like to bring to your attention:

Unlike typical wage earners, the owners of such companies can report losses for tax purposes. When a firm like Kushner Companies reports expenses in excess of its income, the result is a “net operating loss.” That loss can wipe out any taxes that the company’s owner otherwise would owe. Depending on the size of the loss, it can even be used to get refunds for taxes paid in prior years or eliminate tax bills in future years.

Again, “Unlike typical wage earners” is key here. Builders, developers, investors and entrepreneurs are risk taking people. We wage earner types are typically risk averse. The risk takers can reap great benefits (extreme wealth) or the whirlwind (bankruptcy). God bless the risk takers. The undertake great things and build and develop things we all need.

The reason The New York Times is failing is because the editors waste their time chasing stories to confirm their biases against the Trump family. Would that they had spent five minutes looking into Obama adviser and slumlord Valerie Jarrett.

Feature Picture of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner credit: Getty Images