It has recently been made known that on December 6th 2022, the Trump Organization was found guilty of tax fraud as well as falsifying business records. The Trump Organization is a group of around 500 business entities, all owned by Donald J. Trump. It was reported that the fraud had been occurring for around 15 years, until they were finally convicted by a jury in Manhattan, New York.

Despite the shocking revelations, it is said that the Trump Organization could face up to a maximum of 1 million dollars in fines. A felony conviction on the company will not help the business at all. For Donald Trump however, he is now allegedly facing a 250 million dollar civil lawsuit from the New York attorney general, who claimed that he, as well as his adult children, was part of this decade-long scheme.

The Trump Organization was fined 1.6 million dollars for tax evasion. 17 accounts of tax fraud were reported. Allen H. Weisselberg, one of the executives who orchestrated the entire scheme was sentenced to five months in jail. Allen pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax fraud in order to lighten his sentence. Since then, Donald Trump’s lawyers have been trying to divert attention from Trump, pinning the blame on an outside accounting firm (CNN News).“I’m not really surprised about this. For a while there has been a lot of speculation about Trump and the rumors of him being involved in tax fraud. The rumors were everywhere, but I wasn’t really sure if they were true or not,” says Sambhav Puri (9).

Two of the companies, the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation, were found to illegally reduce payroll liability through a variety of schemes, including giving executives untaxed bonuses and high-end perks worth millions (CBS News).

Though it may seem small, tax evasion can have dire consequences. Tax evasion can create negative impacts on the economy, as well as the overall wellbeing of society. This also can lead to a fall in government revenue and lead to higher tax rates. It is no secret, however, that many large companies always manage to find loopholes in the system and avoid paying taxes. The Trump Organization is likely just one of many companies that exploits the system, using loopholes to cheat their way out of paying taxes. It puts strain on the government, as well as regular tax paying citizens.