New York- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns and the large tax deduction may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
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The Trump campaign, in a statement responding to the Times report, said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the New York Times is operating as an extension of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The Times said it had obtained Trump’s 1995 tax records and that they showed he received the large tax benefits from financial deals that went bad in the early 1990s.
The newspaper said that tax experts it hired to analyze Trump’s records said tax rules which are especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have let Trump use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.
The Times said that although Trump’s taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.
Trump has declined to release his tax records, unlike previous presidential nominees in modern history, saying his taxes are under a federal audit. Experts say he could still release them publicly if he wished.
“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the Trump campaign statement said.
“That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions,” it said.
Makes no difference anymore
After his dismal performance at the debate and his late night tweeting war re a former beauty contestant
He’s not in the game anymore
He is going to lose big time
And you know what?
He doesn’t want to be president!
After speaking to an accountant…..
If he legally didn’t have to pay federal tax and he did it 100% according to the law, I cannot fault him. Yes, as he put it the other day, that’s called good business. There are laws on the books that help us when we need to write something off. B!!!
The other thing i was assured was that he probably owed something in federal taxes or he has it deducted from his salary. Somehow someway he’s paying federal taxes and if not, who cares!?!? He’s employing THOUSANDS of employees and is paying 7.65% of their salary towards social security (which is the same pocketbook as federal if you want to be honest.
Note that in the response from the Trump campaign there is no mention of paying income tax.
I have no problem with this”news”. I do have a problem with the media’s sneakiness and distortion. Let us remember that a large percentage of American taxpayers (under $50k/yr) pay little to no federal taxes due to 1) standard withholding and 2) the tax brackets as they are currently. The tax laws allow tax avoidance, not evasion. All are eligible to pay the least and the tax law allows amortizing losses over multiple years. Don’t like it? Change the law.
OK ! Good going New York Times! Now let’s see if you can do an equally good job on getting Hillary’s transcripts of her million dollar speeches before Wall Street which she refuses to release. Let’s see if you can arrange interviews with all the women that were threatened by Hillary after they were assaulted by her husband. Or how about finding out what was really written in the 33,000 emails she deleted. Keep it up Times, the Clinton supporters want you to be balanced. Right.