Former President Donald Trump might owe a whopping $100 million for improper tax breaks on his Trump Tower skyscraper in downtown Chicago as per an Internal Revenue Service audit obtained by ProPublica and the New York Times, dealing the 2024 GOP nominee his latest financial hit, even as his net worth continues to climb on a Truth Social windfall.
It has been noted that the issue stems from a 2008 write-off for the Chicago tower, when Trump claimed the 92-story hotel and condo building that bears his name qualified as “worthless” due to his massive debt on the project.
Trump had reported at the time that he lost up to $651 million on the tower that year, one year before it officially opened, according to the Times and ProPublica report.
However, in 2010, Trump shifted ownership of the tower into a new partnership still under his control, and declared another $168 million in losses. He appeared to write off the same losses twice, prompting IRS scrutiny that ultimately resulted in an agency revision and a new IRS tax bill for over $100 million, according to the report, citing unnamed tax experts.
It is worth noting that Trump’s net worth has skyrocketed since the parent company behind his social media platform Truth Social made its Wall Street debut. With Trump’s 114.8 million shares in parent company Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the former president has more than doubled his net worth, with his majority stake worth roughly $5.6 million as of Thursday.
That windfall comes at a critical time for Trump, who faces over $542 in civil judgments from three cases over the past year, including $454.2 million he was ordered to pay after being found liable for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets in his New York civil fraud case.
