How Trump scored a big tax break for conserving a golf range

The Trump National Golf Club is seen in Rancho Palos Verdes, near Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 7, 2021. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Trump eventually abandoned a plan to build 16 homes and turned instead to the tax code to offset the lost profits - securing a $25 million tax deduction in exchange for a promise not to develop the land. The agreement with a nonprofit conservancy allowed him to continue using the land as a driving range for the Trump National Golf Course.

Conservation easements are usually agreements between property owners and nonprofit organizations dedicated to preserving open space. In return for foregoing development rights, property owners can take a charitable tax deduction based on a real-estate appraiser’s estimate of lost value. The agreements are under growing scrutiny by tax authorities and Congress members who contend wealthy developers often get huge tax breaks for easements providing little public benefit.

“It doesn’t do us a whole lot of good to have a conservation easement over a driving range,” Franz said. Yet Trump himself valued a parcel covering most of the driving range at just $900,000 in a 2013 property tax appeal, just a year before signing the conservation agreement, Los Angeles County assessment records show. Trump was seeking to lower his taxes after a county assessor pegged the value at $1.1 million.

Lots around the course that can be developed have proven to be valuable. Trump sold more than 25 vacant lots bordering the course from 2007 through 2019, for a total of $48.2 million, with a median price of about $1.6 million each, according to property records.The Trump National course is in a spectacular spot, perched on cliffs overlooking Catalina Island.

The landslide raised doubts among local officials that Trump could safely develop the area. The city of Rancho Palos Verdes began extensive geological tests. Although the developers who sold to Trump blamed a leaky sewer pipe for the 1999 collapse, the city’s geologists believed the main culprit was a thin layer of slippery volcanic ash called bentonite that ran under parts of the property, according to interviews and city documents.

Money laundering

what a scam to regular people, whether legal or not....

LMAO, with all the money I wasted in LA to just get shit on, good for'em

What a loser and doofus. I'm so sick of hearing about him.

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