Trump Turned His Golf Empire Into a Billion-Dollar Tax Shelter, per Forbes
A Tax Bill of More Than $500 Million
Trump turned his golf empire into a billion-dollar tax shelter, per Forbes.
Trump made about $1.4 billion from crypto in 2025, plus more than $200 million from real estate, per Forbes calculations. That left him facing a projected tax bill of over $500 million.
Forbes described it as one of the most significant tax bills of his life.
The tool he reached for is a familiar one in his playbook: the conservation easement.
The Jupiter Deal
In December 2025, his company donated the development rights to his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, to a land trust, per Forbes. He kept owning and running the club.
In September 2025, an environmental nonprofit produced a 180-page report arguing that the course's wildlife and plant life merited protection, per Forbes. The donation went to the Barn Group Land Trust.
Forbes estimates the write-off could reach around $825 million.
The Jupiter club, formerly the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, was bought in 2012 for $5 million plus $49 million in liabilities, per Forbes. As an operating golf course it is worth an estimated $120 million.
The much larger deduction figure comes from appraising the land as if it would otherwise become luxury homes, per Forbes. The magazine noted the housing project underlying the appraisal was effectively invented for the valuation.
Across all of his easement donations, Forbes estimates the strategy could keep more than $1 billion of income out of taxable territory and cut his tax bill by about $450 million.
A Strategy Used at Least Five Times Since 2005
It is a strategy Trump has used at least five times since 2005, per Forbes.
At Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2005, he claimed a $39 million deduction on a property he bought for $8 million, per Forbes. The IRS initially valued the write-off at zero before the two sides settled.
At Doral, Florida, he claimed a deduction of up to $323 million, more than twice what he paid for the entire resort, per Forbes.
In New York and California in 2014 and 2015, the New York attorney general alleged the Trump Organization misled appraisers to inflate both donations, per Forbes.
Forbes also found six tax court cases involving aggressive deductions on easements donated to the same land trust, including one in which investors turned a $1.5 million property into a $149 million donation. The trust's CEO told Forbes it does not get involved with appraisals.
The IRS Lawsuit Complicates Everything
A month after the Jupiter deal, Trump sued the IRS over the leak of his tax information, per Forbes.
His own Justice Department's settlement bars claims against him over matters that are pending or "could be pending," per Forbes. The magazine argues that language could cover his 2025 taxes.
Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress it does not, per Forbes.
A federal judge ruled in July that the lawsuit was brought to manipulate the judicial process, per Forbes. Trump is appealing.
Among the homeowners whose properties back onto the Jupiter fairways are Eric Trump and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano, per Forbes. Bisignano took the job as the deal was being put together.
Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to Forbes' questions, per the magazine.
What This Means for Markets
There is no direct trade in a private tax dispute, but the case puts conservation easement enforcement, a long-running IRS priority, back in the headlines, and it intersects with the crypto income that Forbes says drove the bill.
Stocks to watch include COIN and MSTR for the crypto side of the income picture, and golf and leisure names GOLF and MODG for the industry at the center of the story.
A ruling on the appeal, or any IRS move on the Jupiter deduction, would set the terms for aggressive easement claims well beyond one taxpayer.
Bottom Line
A projected $500 million tax bill, a golf course kept and a development right donated, and a write-off Forbes estimates at around $825 million.
The numbers are Forbes' estimates and the fight over them is still ahead.
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