The revelation that President Donald Trump and his family set up shell companies to avoid paying taxes in The New York Times can never result in him being tried for fraud. However, he could face a civil trial and be hit with millions in fines.
"The statute of limitations on criminal tax charges has long since passed," said Times reporter David Barstow on MSNBC. "His exposure to any sort of criminal tax liability would be very limited because of the statute of limitations. There is, however, no statute of limitations on civil fraud. And civil fraud cases, although they're rarely brought, can result in very significant fines. But, of course, it would be, you know, it would require, you know, require the Internal Revenue Service under this administration to do something that it doesn't normally do."
The 1400-word Times article begins by saying that the tax schemes employed by the Trumps in the 1990s "included instances of outright fraud."
Trump continues to refuse to release his tax returns for many years, claiming he's being audited and once the audit is over, he'll consider it. But the new findings raise a question about why he's avoided releasing them, The Times remarked.
"According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations," the report said. "There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud."
Barstow said that given the large sum of money, that there is no way "the IRS wouldn't take a look at it."
He also noted that anyone who has been involved in fraud cases like this knows that it rarely stops with someone realizing they've been doing something wrong.
"So, while the period that's the subject of this story ends in '90s, if the IRS was to start taking a look at this period and to use that to kind of get under the hood of his business and his personal finances, I suspect you would see that tax fraud and tax evasion has continued to now," he said. "And it highlights the point that has been at the forefront with Donald Trump since he first got into the race for president. Which is we know nothing about his personal finances? He's been completely opaque about them."
Trump denies the allegations.
“There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate," Trump's attorney said in a statement.