New Report Reveals Trump May Have Avoided Paying Taxes for 18 Years

October 2, 2016

2 min read

Because of business losses, Donald Trump may have been able to legally avoid paying federal income taxes for as many as 18 years, revealed a report obtained by the New York Times published on Saturday night. The report shed some light on what has been a murky understanding, at best, of Trump’s finances over the course of his presidential campaign.

The Republican nominee declared a massive $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a deduction large enough to exempt him from paying taxes for nearly two decades. Tax benefits for the wealthy would have enabled him to use the losses, from business failures in Atlantic City casinos, airlines, and hotels, to “cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period,” said the Times report.

The document, three pages from Trump’s 1995 tax returns, were mailed anonymously to a New York Times reporter and confirmed legitimate by former Trump accountant Jack Mitnick, who had prepared the original filings.

Trump’s campaign responded with an accusation that the documents were “illegally obtained” in a “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.”

“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,” read the campaign’s statement.

Rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook responded to the story by saying that Trump had avoided paying taxes “while tens of millions of working families paid theirs.”

“He calls that ‘smart’,” Mook added, referring to a moment in last week’s presidential debate in which Trump had apparently admitted to avoiding paying his taxes, which “makes me smart,” he said.

Releasing tax returns during a presidential election is a generally accepted practice, with every major party candidate since 1976 making their returns available to the public. Clinton released nearly 40 years’ worth of her tax returns, but while Trump had said earlier in his campaign that he would release his in due course, he later reneged, citing ongoing IRS audits and the advice of his lawyers.

The IRS has said that audits do not prohibit anyone from releasing tax returns.

Political analysts say that the reveal, which does not uncover any illegal activity, is unlikely to hurt Trump among his loyal supporters, but that it is a bad end to a bad week which saw Trump losing in the polls after his first debate against Clinton on Monday.

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