The Times had an article yesterday on the lawsuit against the Trump organization. As I understand it, two employees have pled guilty for fraud--not reporting as income benefits they got from company, like tuition for kids, cars, etc. But the suit is against the organization so the government must prove that their manipulations of the accounts to provide these unreported benefits were "in behalf of" the organization. Apparently it's a big issue.
With my bias against TFG it seems clear to me. It was a "win, win" deal for the two employees--they got more compensation from the company through the manipulation without doing anything more for it. What did the company gain? Presumably the employees were providing services worth their total compensation.
For example, assume the employee got $500K in taxable income, making $350K after taxes. He also got $250K in benefits under the table, the taxes on which would have been $75K So the employee nets $600 K, the company pays $750K, and the US gets $150K The US should have gotten $75K more. So it's a win, win for the two employees, a loss for the US taxpayer.
How about the company? It's simple accounting, if someone loses, someone must gain. So who gained the $75K--I say the company, assuming a free market for the employee's services. In such a market to hire the employee they'd have to pony up $825 in taxable gross salary and benefits.
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