TAKING ADVANTAGE

Report: Jared Kushner Likely Paid Almost No Federal Income Taxes for Years

By relying on a loophole intended to protect real estate developers from depreciation, according to the New York Times.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner reportedly managed to amass a fortune over the years while at the same time appearing to pay next to no federal income taxes. Citing confidential financial documents, The New York Times on Saturday reported that Kushner relied on a tax-minimizing loophole that kept his tax bills low by allowing him to report losses based on “depreciation” in the real estate business. Nothing in the documents indicates Kushner broke the law, according to the report. Instead, the documents appear to shed light on his use of a tax provision that critics have long warned was being misused by developers looking to cash in on lax tax policies. “The Trump administration was in a position to clean up the tax code and promised to get rid of some of the complexity that certain taxpayers use to their advantage,” Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told the Times. “Instead, they doubled down on those provisions, particularly the ones they have familiarity with to benefit themselves,” he said.