After months of being pressured to release his tax returns, and in light of recent revelations by the New York Times regarding Donald Trump’s possible evasion of income tax over the last 18 years, curious investigators are looking more closely at the Republican presidential hopeful than ever.

Among Republicans, Trump was the only candidate that refused to release his returns. Trump has given the patently ridiculous excuse that he can’t release his returns because he’s currently under audit by the IRS, so it remains to be seen exactly how Donald Trump has made (or lost) his so-called fortune, who he does business with, how much he actually makes, or whether or not he really donates to charity.

Along with the New York Times discovery that Trump lost nearly $1 billion in 1995, it was also discovered that Donald Trump is known for evading taxes — even sales taxes. Forbes dug up a criminal case from 1986 wherein Donald Trump was evading New York state sales tax in collusion with a Bulgari jewelry store. The high-end jewelry store and Donald Trump seemed to have worked out a deal where Trump could avoid paying sales tax to the state and the city.

Trump would enter the store at the Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan to purchase a piece for a wife or girlfriend such as an expensive watch or necklace. Under normal circumstances, Bulgari would charge the customer sales tax, which would then be later paid to state coffers.

But Trump and Bulgari had a deal. As a way to illegally avoid paying the sales tax, normally a pretty large sum on expensive jewelry, Trump would “ask” the store to ship the jewelry to an out-of-state address so that sales tax would not be collected.

Many online vendors sell out-of-state and are not required to collect or pay state sales tax unless they have a store or business location in the state where the item is delivered. But this was in 1986 before internet commerce and even today, state budgets are suffering from the practice.

What Forbes discovered is that the store would ship an empty box to the out-of-state address, and Trump and his current arm candy would walk out of the store with the jewelry.

New York tax collectors caught up to Bulgari and Trump and a number of others using this scam to cheat the State of New York out of rightful revenue, and Trump was called to testify against the store to protect himself against charges. According to The Los Angeles Times, Trump purchased over $65,000 worth of jewelry using this method, which is approximately $142,000 in 2016 dollars.

And the New York Sales tax scam isn’t the only tax evasion in Donald Trump’s past. Trump also stiffed the state of Florida for property taxes on his Mar-a-Lago estate. According to POLITICO reporter Frank Cerabino, Trump purchased the Palm Beach, Florida, estate from cereal empire heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post for the low, low price of $7.5 million. County appraisers, however, assessed the value of the property at $11.5 million when he bought it. This is a common practice, and new property owners are expected to pay property tax on the assessed value after the time of sale. But Donald Trump decided to cheat the county, and pay property taxes at the sales price instead of the actual value. Trump eventually wheedled out of paying the higher property taxes by giving up his development rights on some of the land to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, saving him from paying for the “highest and best use” standard normally used by tax assessors.

Trump is not just trashy, he’s also a cheap bastard. Despite his claims of being worth billions of dollars, he also filed for a $150,000 grant meant for small businesses trying to recover from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to Forbes, he’s also claiming a $300 deduction for middle-class tax break for homeowners.

Whatever Donald Trump is hiding in those unreleased tax returns probably provides even more damaging examples of penny-pinching and gaming the system.

H/T: Forbes magazine

Featured image via Getty Images