NEW YORK — On the financial disclosure forms that Donald Trump has pointed to as proof of his tremendous success, no venture looks more gold-plated than his golf resort in Doral, Fla., where he reported revenue of $50 million in 2014. That figure accounted for the biggest share of what he described as his income for the year.
But this summer, a different picture emerged in a hearing room in Miami, where Trump’s company was challenging the resort’s property tax bill.
Trump’s lawyer handed the magistrate an income and expense statement showing that gross revenue had indeed been $50 million. But after paying operating costs, the resort had actually lost $2.4 million.
Trump has repeatedly held out his financial disclosures as a justification for breaking with tradition and refusing to release his personal tax returns.
“You don’t learn that much from tax returns,’’ he said in September, during his first debate with Hillary Clinton. “You learn a lot from financial disclosure. And you should go down and take a look at that.’’
But an examination of his tax appeals on several properties, and other documents obtained by The New York Times through Freedom of Information requests, shows that what Trump has reported is nowhere near a complete picture.
After expenses, some of his businesses make a small fraction of what he reported on his disclosure forms, or actually lose money. In fact, it is virtually impossible to determine from the forms just how much he is earning in any year.
Trump appears to have used a provision in federal ethics laws that allows business owners to list gross revenue, as opposed to net income after expenses, on disclosure forms. But he does not seem to have completely acknowledged that choice. Rather, he has suggested that the figures on the form represent money in his pocket.
In news releases, the Trump campaign said “Mr. Trump’s income’’ listed in a disclosure form filed last year was $362 million, and was more than $557 million in a form filed this year. During the debate with Clinton in September, he mentioned an even larger figure.
“It shows income . . . in fact, the income — I just looked today — the income is filed at $694 million for this past year, $694 million,’’ Trump said. “If you would have told me I was going to make that 15 or 20 years ago, I would have been very surprised.’’
A spokeswoman for Trump, Hope Hicks, declined to answer questions about how Trump had reported his income, saying only that his disclosure form “speaks for itself.’’
Another seeming cash cow, at least as far as the forms portray it, is 40 Wall St., an Art Deco office building that Trump has spoken of as perhaps the greatest bargain he ever struck.
“I make approximately $20 million a year in rentals from 40 Wall Street and the building is now worth $500 million,’’ Trump wrote in “Trump Never Give Up,’’ published in 2008. “So, aside from owning the most beautiful building in Lower Manhattan, I have the added attraction of making a profit.’’
On his disclosure forms, Trump listed the income he derived from rents in the building in the highest category on the form — more than $5 million. (The form requires listing monetary ranges for most types of income, and precise dollar figures where the gross revenue of a business is provided.)
But the income and expense statement he filed with the New York City Tax Commission to appeal his property taxes shows that after mortgage payments and other costs, the building produced a cash flow of about $104,000 in 2014. Over the previous three years, it had a negative cash flow of $5.5 million.
Last year, the building rebounded and turned a profit.
The recent negative cash flow at two of Trump’s premier properties raises possible motivations he may have for not releasing his tax returns: They could show that his success is not as he has claimed.
