“In This Little Piece of Dirt”
Ivana Trump buried on golf course to save taxes?
By Charlotte Andres
07/31/2022, 3:20 p.m
Ex-US President Donald Trump is said to have buried his ex-wife Ivana on his golf course for financial reasons. According to one professor, this should save him a lot of money. It wouldn’t be the first time he resorted to bizarre means to keep the place cheap.
On July 20, Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of the former US President, was buried on the grounds of her ex-husband’s golf course: the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The tomb is spartan. A photo of the gravesite shows only a gravestone and a small, white bouquet of flowers. As the “Daily Mail” Referring to a Twitter post by Professor Brooke Harrington, Trump may have chosen the unusual burial site for tax reasons.
Brooke Harrington is a professor of sociology at Dartmouth and describes herself as a tax researcher. She is convinced that Donald Trump placed his ex-wife on the spot for financial reasons. Posting a picture of Ivana Trump’s grave on Twitter, she said, “I was wary of rumors that Trump buried his ex-wife in this sad little patch of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks. ”
But that’s exactly how it could have been: According to Harrington, the law in the state grants tax savings for land on which human remains are buried. There should be no provision for the amount of human remains necessary to qualify for the tax break.
Save taxes with goats
However, research by the “Daily Mail” shows that the exemption only applies as long as the property is less than ten hectares in size. Donald Trump’s property is significantly larger, so a tax exemption could not apply to the entire golf club, but only to the area around the gravesite.
A report by the “Wall Street Journal” from 2016 out. Trump kept a herd of goats in Bedminster, which contributed to the organization’s claims that the area was farmland. The Journal estimated that without the farmland tax break, Trump would have to pay about $80,000 a year in royalties.
“Such a beautiful country”
According to an article in the “Washington Post” from 2017, however, Trump’s company also wrote in the files that Donald Trump had previously selected this property specifically for his final resting place “since it is his favorite property”. As early as 2007, the former president proposed building a cemetery on the golf course to set up a family mausoleum for himself and his family members. Then, in 2014, the Trump Organization obtained permits for ten burial sites on his land.
Trump told Page Six at the time, “This is such a beautiful country and Bedminster is one of the richest places in the country.” For this reason, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and Jared Kushner may have also decided to marry at the property in 2009.
Donald Trump has not yet commented on the tax allegations. However, the fact that he had his ex-wife buried at his golf course purely for tax reasons seems unlikely, given that he himself contemplated his final resting place in Bedminster. And before Ivana Trump’s funeral, the Trump Organization had the land in Bedminster dedicated “so she could have a traditional Catholic funeral,” according to the New York Times.