Tax records show Trump tried to land China projects: Report

21 October, 2020
Tax records show Trump tried to land China projects: Report
President Donald Trump spent ten years unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company, THE BRAND NEW York Times reported on Tuesday (Oct 20).

China is among only three foreign nations - the others are Britain and Ireland - where Trump maintains a bank account, according to a Times analysis of the president’s tax records. The foreign accounts usually do not arrive on Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they're held under corporate names.

The Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, which the tax records show paid US$188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015.

In response to questions from The Times, Alan Garten, a legal professional for the Trump Organization, said the company had “opened a merchant account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States so as to pay the neighborhood taxes” connected with efforts to accomplish business there. 

He said the business had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia".

“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialised and, since 2015, any office has remained inactive,” Garten said. “Although bank-account remains open, it has never been used for just about any other purpose.”

Garten wouldn't normally identify the lender in China where in fact the account is held.

China is still a concern in the 2020 presidential campaign, from the president’s trade war to his barbs over the foundation of the coronavirus pandemic. 

His campaign has tried to portray former Vice President Joe Biden as misreading the dangers posed by China’s growing power. Trump in addition has sought to tar his opponent with overblown or unsubstantiated assertions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings there while his father was in office.

For the former vice president, his public financial disclosures, along with the tax returns he voluntarily released, show no income or business dealings of his own in China. However, there is ample evidence of Trump’s efforts to accomplish business there.

As with Russia, where he explored hotel and tower projects in Moscow without success, Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least dating back to 2006, when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many Chinese government approvals came after he became president.

In 2008, Trump pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that never got off the bottom. But his efforts accelerated in 2012 with the opening of a Shanghai office, and tax records show that among Trump’s China-related companies, THC China Development LLC, claimed US$84,000 in deductions that year for travel costs, legal service fees and office expenses.

The Times said Trump's tax records show that he has invested at least US$192,000 in five small companies created particularly to pursue projects in China over the years. 

Those companies claimed at least US$97,400 running a business expenses since 2010, including some minor payments for taxes and accounting service fees as recently as 2018, the Times reported.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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