Citing an extensive trove of thousands of documents including tax returns, the New York Times reported yesterday that Trump derived nearly all of his personal wealth by accepting fraudulent gifts from his father that were sheltered from taxes through various criminal schemes.
As you might have expected, New York state tax authorities are very interested in this information.
From Bloomberg:
“The Tax Department is reviewing the allegations in the New York Times article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation,” said James Gazzale, spokesman for Department of Taxation and Finance.
Under New York and federal law, there’s no statute of limitations to pursuing civil tax cases if authorities suspect an intent to evade taxes. Generally, the activities described by the paper would be too old to lead to a criminal inquiry.
While it's highly unlikely anyone in the Trump family could face criminal charges, it's fairly easy to imagine various tax authorities sending them a bill after they finish their investigations. The state of New York has already pursued aggressive cases against the defunct Trump Foundation and they're currently investigating the Trump Organization. And New York probably won't be the only state interested in the Trump family fraud scheme. The Trumps have properties across the country and may have liabilities we don't even know about.
As far as criminal charges are concerned, however, I'm more interested in what the Trump family is doing today, not what they did in the 1990s, and they could be prosecuted if they're breaking the law today.
I find it entirely implausible that Trump and his own children are not using similar schemes that Trump and his father used for over 50 years. A proper investigation of Trump's finances, something we did not get before the 2016 election, would reveal everything.