Under the New Jersey tax code, land dedicated to cemetery purposes is exempt from all taxes, rates, and assessments – and some say a tax break is why Donald Trump buried his first wife, Ivana, at his Bedminster golf club.
Fact check: Did Trump bury his first wife Ivana at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey?
According to fact-checking website Snopes, YES, former president Donald Trump DID bury his first wife, Ivana Trump, at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. This is confirmed by reputable media reports and photographs taken at the gravesite. Reporters from the New York Post visited the golf club and photographed Ivana Trump’s grave, and the news outlet also tweeted photographs. According to reports, Ivana’s grave is not too far from the clubhouse but is in a place not visible to golfers, below the backside of the first tee.
Would New Jersey’s tax code give Trump tax exemptions?
It is true that the New Jersey tax code exempts cemetery land from all taxes, rates, and assessments. Brooke Harrington, a tax researcher and sociology professor at Dartmouth, pointed out in a tweet that New Jersey’s tax code has no stipulation for a minimum number of human remains on a plot of land required for the tax breaks to apply.
“As a tax researcher,” Harrington tweeted, “I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks.”
“So I checked the NJ tax code & folks…” Harrington continued. “It’s a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.”
Trump has long sought cemetery tax breaks
Ivana Trump was laid to rest on July 14, 2022. Apparently, as far back as 2007, Bedminster officials rejected Trump’s proposal to construct a family mausoleum on the golf course.
However, years later, Bedminster officials approved a 284-plot cemetery with gravesites for club members, township residents, and veterans. Ten plots near the first tee were reserved for Trump and his family, New Jersey 101.5 reported.
Ivana is the first known family member to be buried at the Bedminster golf club.
Golf course is also part farm for tax breaks
New Jersey also has a farmland tax break that Trump has taken advantage of. The golf club comprises four lots that are listed under the ownership of Lamington Farm Club, with nearly 184 acres listed as farmland and over 320 acres classified as a golf course.
Part of the land on the golf course was designated for agricultural purposes, specifically for a small herd of goats and hay production, and benefited from a farmland tax break, according to a 2016 report by the Wall Street Journal. In 2019, farmland tax breaks saved the golf course around $88,000, the Huffington Post reported.
Will Trump get a legal tax break for using his golf club as a cemetery?
While New Jersey officials have yet to weigh in publicly, tax experts can’t find any exclusions that would prevent Trump from receiving tax exemptions for the cemetery use of his golf course land – so the answer appears to be YES.
“No stipulation regarding a minimum #of human remains necessary for the tax breaks to kick in,” Harrington added in a second tweet. “Looks like one corpse will suffice to make at least 3 forms of tax vanish.”
Phoebe Wall Howard of USA Today also concurred with Harrington’s claims in a tweet, writing: “New Jersey law exempts land used for cemetery purposes from income, sales and use taxes.”
“The #ivanatrump burial site at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster likely delivers a huge tax break,” Howard added. “Business and inheritance taxes are exempt, too. Also, cemetery property is exempt from sale for collection of judgments.”
