Taxes on Trump’s $1.4 billion crypto income could total hundreds of millions
President Trump’s latest financial disclosure finally puts a dollar amount on the network of crypto startups he has continued to pursue since returning to office. But revelation earned $1.4 billion The fledgling industry has reignited another mystery about its finances: How much does it pay in taxes?
The president’s crypto windfall appears to be taxable. An accountant who specializes in cryptocurrency income said it was reasonable to believe that Mr. Trump would have to pay at least $250 million for that income.
Still, multiple tax experts told CBS News that Mr. Trump’s actual bill could be much lower, but that would be difficult to know because of a lack of transparency about the corporate entities holding the income. Unlike many past presidents, Mr. Trump does not make his tax returns public.
“What we know is that he has done very well for himself, but we don’t know how the beneficial ownership is structured,” said Omri Marian, a law professor who specializes in cryptocurrency taxation. “It’s like looking into a black box, but I can’t see inside.”
The White House declined to answer questions about the taxes Mr. Trump paid on his crypto income, whether it was taxed on an individual or business basis and whether any operating losses were applied to his crypto-related tax bill.
If the entire $1.4 billion were to be taxed at the federal individual income rate, the president would owe the IRS $518 million at the maximum statutory rate of 37%, not counting potential deductions.
By the way to the IRSDigital assets are subject to the same capital gains taxes as traditional securities transactions. But Marian said it was impossible to determine whether the money would be treated as capital gains or ordinary income because of limited disclosures of income sources in its financial statement.
For example, the $625 million Mr. Trump collected from his own account $TRUMP meme money It is described as copyright of a licensing agreement with a company called Celebration Coins. According to the statement, World Freedom FinanceThe crypto company he founded with his sons paid him more than $590 million in proceeds from sales of digital tokens and equity stakes in the company.
There is also the question of whether the proceeds will ultimately be paid to Mr. Trump or to a business linked to the president. The latter would lead to a lower corporate tax rate, but in either scenario Mr. Trump could offset his gains with losses.
“Without knowing more about him, it’s really hard for me to say what the tax consequences are for him and the entities involved,” Marian said.
Knowing much more would probably be elusive.
According to a Controversial settlement agreement According to the order signed by the Justice Department in May, the IRS and the Treasury Department are “PERMANENTLY BARRED AND BARRED” from pursuing lawsuits against Mr. Trump or his company based on his prior tax returns. The agreement resolved a lawsuit in which the president accused the IRS of failing to protect his tax returns by allowing a government contractor to leak documents to news organizations, including the New York Times in 2020.
The deal included more than $1.7 billion in “counterproliferation” funds that would pay people who claimed they were victims of the government’s “rule of law.” The fund angered both Democrats and Republicans, and its creation was halted by a federal judge. Later Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche He told Congress The Justice Department “was not making progress on funding.”
