After IRS Audit, Trump Could Owe $100M

Donald Trump's tower in Chicago has already lost a lot of money, partly because of cost overruns and partly because it opened during the Great Recession, in 2009. Trump could have another big bill for the tower coming. According to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry, Trump employed a shaky accounting strategy to claim improper tax breaks, the New York Times and ProPublica report. The result was that he essentially wrote off the same losses twice. If Trump loses his long audit battle over the issue, he could be looking at a tax bill topping $100 million.

Asked about the issue, Trump's son Eric said: "This matter was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office. We are confident in our position, which is supported by opinion letters from various tax experts, including the former general counsel of the IRS." A spokesman for the IRS said federal law doesn't permit the agency to comment on the private information of taxpayers. Walter Schwidetzky, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who's an expert on the issues, said of Donald Trump, "I think he ripped off the tax system." The Times-ProPublica report on the multifaceted matter can be found here. (More Donald Trump stories.)