The New York Times received what they identify as relevant pages from Donald Trump's 1995 income tax returns. These reportedly show the "businessman" had a loss in excess of $915 million, resulting in his paying no federal income taxes that year and enough to possibly allow him to avoid taxes for nearly two decades.
Trump previously encouraged Russian hackers to go after Hillary Clinton, yet Trump was not amused by the New York Times tax disclosure, which he called illegal. As usual, he threatened to sue. Yawn.
Trump's errand boys, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, both said this demonstrated that Trump was a "genius." The guy loses nearly $1 billion and they call him a "genius." I suppose he would have been twice as smart had he lost $2 billion.
The Trump camp went so far as to peddle the bunk that he had a "fiduciary duty" to do what he did. I would think that perhaps had he any fiduciary duty at all it would be NOT to lose nearly $1 billion. For that matter, how does a genius like Trump lose money in the casino business-- an enterprise that is truly a money making machine!
And, of course, there is nothing particularly smart about any of this. Any entrepreneur who has a business loss can amortize it in a similar manner. And any store-front tax preparer would do the same thing for a client who had a net operating loss, regardless of its size.
Following the New York Times story, Trump tweeted "I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them." Aye yi yi.
By comparison, in 1995, the Clintons earned $202,423 in ordinary income and $88,441 in capital gains, paying $75,437 in federal income taxes. These dummies actually made money and paid taxes.
Pity the poor person who worked in some fast food joint who paid more income taxes than did Trump.
There is another puzzling issue here. If the tax returns show that Trump is a "genius," why is he threatening to sue the New York Times? He should be thanking them for demonstrating his great intellect. In fact, he should release all of his tax returns so we can all further bask in his brilliance.
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