Trump’s Tax Returns Reveal Suspicious Low-Interest Loans For His Children

Donald Trump‘s tax returns were released publicly on December 30 of last year by the House Ways and Means Committee. They suggest that Trump claimed large losses before and during his presidency to reduce or even eliminate his tax burden.

The former president’s tax returns also show that he made low-interest loans to Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric.

Before the release of the tax returns, congressional investigators found the loans and flagged them for further examination.

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Forbes analyzed the newly-released tax returns with Trump’s personal balance sheets to determine the interest rates on his loans to his children.

The three eldest Trump children owed their father $4.55 million and paid him about $50,000 in annual interest from the years of 2015 to 2020. This comes out to an interest rate of only 1.1%.

To prevent the opportunity for sham loans, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulates the rates that parents can offer their children. The IRS’s minimum allowed rate for long-term loans — the type that Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric had — was well above 1.1% during this time.

Investigators suggest that they may have been able to pay lower rates by shortening the term of the loan. If Trump’s loans came with these reduced terms but were repeatedly redefined as the term neared its end date, then the trio could theoretically have borrowed money from Trump over a longer period while still being eligible for the lower interest rates.

If the Trump family organized their loans in this way, many of them may have been legal.