As Donald Trump establishes his $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to reward the people who tried to overthrow the government on his behalf, it is worth taking a moment to honor Charles Littlejohn. He’s the person who made it all possible.
Most people are probably not familiar with the name. Littlejohn is the person who leaked Donald Trump’s tax returns, along with those of thousands of other rich people. Littlejohn had been working as a contractor with the I.R.S. In this capacity, he had the opportunity to see that many of the very rich paid little or no income tax. Unlike those of us who work for a living, billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Donald Trump often get away with paying almost, or sometimes literally, nothing.
This apparently bothered Littlejohn. He shared the tax returns of thousands of these people with major news outlets. That was a clear violation of the law. Tax returns are supposed to be confidential and not seen by anyone outside the I.R.S. Littlejohn’s leak broke this confidence.
But Littlejohn didn’t break the law for personal profit; he did it as a public service. He wanted people to know how the very richest among us can often avoid paying taxes.
In doing so, he also exposed some of the obvious tricks the rich use. The simplest is just borrowing to support their consumption, instead of selling stock and paying taxes.
This one is worth explaining since it is so simple and pernicious. Take a very rich person, like Elon Musk or Jeff...
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