The interment of Donald Trump’s former wife, Ivana Trump, at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey in 2022 was long a source of wonder, but a new viral social media post indicates the choice was possibly motivated by something other than personal preference: an astute tax tactic.
The Instagram handle “Awareness Of Success” sparked a new controversy, declaring, “WHY DID DONALD TRUMP BURY HIS EX-WIFE ON A GOLF COURSE? It wasn’t just grief. It was a strategy.”
The post spotlights one particular provision in the New Jersey state tax code: land consecrated to cemetery purposes is free from all assessments, rates, and taxes. Additionally, cemetery companies are specifically exempted from real estate, personal property, business, sales, income, and inheritance taxes on their land.
“No Property Tax, No Sales Tax, No Income Tax”
The popular post pointed out that it takes only one grave on a property to legally turn that property into a tax-exempt cemetery. “No property tax. No sales tax. No income tax. All it takes is one grave…And the land becomes sacred ground,” the post went on.
It asserted that in order to take advantage of these substantial tax breaks, Trump “silently registered the property as a nonprofit cemetery corporation.” This supposed action, with “only one grave,” might make the entire golf course property tax-exempt, amounting to tens of millions in taxes. The post noted the striking closeness: “150 feet from the clubhouse. The first hole now adjoins a legal loophole.”
Under New Jersey statute, a “cemetery company” is one owning or controlling a cemetery, except for religious societies limiting burials to their members unless they secure a particular certificate of authority.
The unorthodox burial decision has received harshly polarized responses, with some calling it “cold” while others praised it as “genius” for its perceived ingenuity of taking advantage of provisions of the law. The Instagram post ended with a commentary on a wider scale about how wealthy individuals use lesser-known laws: “This isn’t just about one grave. It’s a lesson in how the wealthy use laws most people don’t even know exist. It’s not always illegal. But it’s rarely ethical.”
Changing Cemetery Plans and Ivana’s Funeral
ProPublica reports have already shown that the Trump Family Trust had looked into treating other properties, such as one in Hackettstown, New Jersey, as non-profit cemetery businesses. Donald Trump’s cemetery plans for the Bedminster golf course have changed over the years as well. In 2012, NPR covered his original plan to construct a mausoleum for himself at the course. Later, ideas went from a cemetery with more than 1,000 graves to a private family cemetery of fewer plots of 10 in 2017, and then later plans for a bigger 284-grave cemetery for sale.
Ivana Trump died at the age of 73 due to injuries from a fall in her Manhattan apartment. Her tomb at the Bedminster golf course is surprisingly unassuming, with a plain headstone close to the first tee, without a public monument or a fence. She is the only person buried on site.
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