The New York Times on Saturday released a potentially embarrassing story outlining how GOP nominee Donald Trump could possibly have avoided paying taxes for up to 18 years because his 1995 tax return reflecting nearly a $1 million dollar net operating loss. Late Saturday evening the Trump campaign issued a response claiming he knows the tax code better than anyone who has run for President. A comment which his 1995 tax preparer might dispute after telling the New York Times that Trump’s then wife Ivana typically asked more questions than Trump.
The NY Times story outlines how they received a copy of a few of Trump’s tax returns via mail in mid-September, postmarked in the city and a return address of Trump Tower. Their reporting included:
“Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.
The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Tax experts hired by The Times to analyze Mr. Trump’s 1995 records said that tax rules especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have allowed Mr. Trump to use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.”Â
Trump’s lawyers reportedly threatened the New York Times with a potential lawsuit if they proceeded with publishing these documents because the paper does not have Trump’s permission. The full report, including an interview with the tax accountant who prepared the 1995 return, here.
The campaign sent out the following excerpts from their statement in response to the publication of Trump’s tax returns:
“The only news here is that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a further demonstration that the New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests.Â
“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. 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. Mr. Trump knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for President and he is the only one that knows how to fix it.
“The incredible skills Mr. Trump has shown in building his business are the skills we need to rebuild this country. Hillary Clinton is a corrupt public official who violated federal law, Donald Trump is an extraordinarily successful private businessman who followed the law and created tens of thousands of jobs for Americans.”
