Trump misses property tax deadline on Chicago tower, four other properties
President
Donald Trump's company missed deadlines to pay property-tax bills in five states over the past year — and those delays cost the company $61,800 extra in penalties, interest and missed discounts, according to government records and local officials.
This
spate of missed deadlines was out of character for the Trump Organization, which receives hundreds of property-tax bills every year. Previously, records show, it had a good record of paying them on time.
But records show that between last November and this April, Trump's company failed to pay property taxes on time in New Jersey, New York, Illinois and California.
In Florida, the company also missed a Nov. 30 deadline to pay its taxes early and claim a 4 percent discount. For the first time in at least nine years, the company waited until January to pay taxes on the Mar-a-Lago Club, two mansions and three golf courses. That wait increased the company's bills by $23,500, records show.
The missed deadlines puzzled real estate experts, who said that for a long-established property company such as the Trump Organization, paying property taxes should be a routine task. The bills arrive for predictable sums of money, at predictable times, with predictable penalties for lateness in paying.
Many companies use computer programs to track upcoming bills and flag them long before they become overdue.
The Post's search found little evidence of deadlines missed by the Trump Organization before 2017, beyond one set of late payments at the Chicago tower in 2015.
But then, late last year, it missed a number of deadlines, in several states — even while it continued to pay some of its bills on time.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-trump-late-property-taxes-20180718-story.html