I agree with Turley on this. Trump has every piece of real estate in a separate corporation. We started doing this with high value properties back in the early 1980’s as it is easier to just sell the stock in the corporation, rather than the real estate.
On a $100 million property, the transfer taxes alone would be several million in most states.
As soon as you add minority interest in the corporate entity, it really creates confusion for the courts. I’ve encountered this many times over the years when negotiating IRS collection cases.
Thus, with minority shareholders, the government could only go after Trump’s interest and also could be required to abide by shareholder agreements and restrictive deed covenants. It can become very complicated.
In addition, equity might be diversified through encumbrances on the property through other loan guarantees. If Trump Tower is pledged as collateral on another property as part of a loan package. The loan holder could block the government from taking their collateral.
It would be easy to tie this up in the court for years. In the interim, Trump can use it as propaganda for campaign purposes.
See, the communists seizing my property. Your pension accounts are next. Possibly even true...
Good post—the transfer tax issue has had a major effect on real estate.
The AG is either bluffing or stupid.
A few years back, Maryland started imposing transfer and recordation taxes on transfers of interests in entities owning real estate. Bastards!
Every one of the Trump Organization LLPs are open season in the case verdict, even the TO’s percentage ownerships. Other sources in NYC are claiming the AG’s targets for seizure are those where Trump Org. or its officers hold clear title. We’ll have to see what she does on Monday - if anything.
Turley is a brilliant lawyer, but he’s been wrong several times now about this particular case. One of Turley’s biggest mistakes was in processing the case as a garden variety fraud case. James used the equivalent of a state civil RICO charge to paint the entire Trump Org. as a criminal racket. Perhaps there’s an appeal available for that, but I’m less hopeful now.