IT’S ‘INSANE’ WE PAY IRS, DON DOESN’T
Immigs who worked for Trump rage as he brags about ducking tax obligations
A wave of emotions washed over Jesus Lira when he found out that President Trump has only paid a few hundred dollars in federal income taxes since the early 2000s.
“It was a little bit of everything — angry, sad, confused,” said Lira, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who used to work as a cook at Trump’s Westchester County golf club. “The president, my former boss, isn’t paying any taxes. How is that even possible?”
Lira, who’s among dozens of undocumented ex-employees of Trump’s company, was referring to a Sunday report by The New York Times that revealed the president paid just $750 per year in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 and no income tax at all for 10 out of the previous 15 years.
Outraged by the bombshell report, Lira and three other undocumented ex-Trump Organization workers provided the Daily News with records this week showing that they paid tens of thousands of dollars in federal income taxes while working for the president — despite their immigration status.
Sandra Diaz, one of the other former workers who provided documents, said there are many more like them.
“Every single person who worked there who were undocumented paid [taxes],” said Diaz, a Costa Rican native who was a housekeeper at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “And then he pays nothing at all? I don’t understand. He’s rich. He has to set an example for all the country.”
Diaz said she personally knows at least 30 more undocumented immigrants who kept on top of their taxes every year while working for Trump’s company.
Anibal Romero, an attorney who represents more than 20 undocumented ex-Trump workers, said Diaz’s count is accurate.
“The numerous undocumented immigrants who worked for Trump pay more in taxes than Trump,” Romero said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere wouldn’t answer detailed questions about Trump’s former employees, but said in an email Wednesday: “The New York Times report is fake news. The president has paid millions of dollars in taxes.”
Undocumented i mmigrants typically use fake Social Security numbers or so-called Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to satisfy an employer’s tax-related payroll requirements.
The Trump Organization, which did not return a request for comment, fired Lira and several dozen other undocumented workers last year after The News and other outlets reported on their hiring practices. The company has maintained it did not know of their illegal immigration status — a claim denied by the workers.
According to W-2 forms reviewed by The News, Lira paid $29,366 in federal income taxes over the course of his 2008-2018 employment at the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County.
Though his 2018 payments aren’t known, Trump likely only paid $1,500 in federal income tax over the same period — $750 in 2016 and another
$750 in 2017, according to his personal tax returns obtained by the Times.
By contrast, Lira paid $5,099 in federal income tax in 2017 alone, having gotten a raise the year prior, according to his records.
“It’s just not right,” Lira said of Trump’s minuscule tax burden. “It’s insane.”
Trump’s extraordinarily low tax rate was made possible by a range of legally dubious accounting tricks, in which he claimed enormous business deductions and losses that allowed him to keep his federal tax liability at or close to $0 while still maintaining a life of luxury, according to the Times.
Experts say some of Trump’s tax practices appear to border on fraud.
“From writing off personal expenses, to inflating the value of his properties to claim bogus charitable deductions, to claiming a $72 million refund that he appears to have been ineligible for … the Times investigation has found many instances of Trump stepping over legal lines,” said Seth Hanlon, a former senior tax counsel for the House Budget Committee.
Victorina Morales, one of Diaz’s fellow former housekeepers at the Trump club in Bedminster, is another immigrant who provided The News with a W-2 form.
The form shows Morales paid $2,296 in federal income tax in 2017 while working for the president.
For her part, Diaz, who has obtained legal immigration status since leaving the Trump club in 2013, paid at least $1,423 in federal income tax over the course of her threeyear employment, according to W-2 forms.
Jorge Castro, an undocumented former worker for one of Trump’s construction companies, gave The News a W-2 showing that he paid $5,332 in income tax in 2014 while working for the president.
Like Lira, Diaz said she was shocked when she first learned of Trump’s tax dodging.
“He’s rich because he used immigrants and then used immigrants again to make him president by attacking us,” she said.
But Diaz said there’s also a bright side to the tax revelations.
“I’m angry, but I’m really happy also, because the people know now who he is,” she said. “People know with proof that he’s a liar now.”