So one thing that's been "hidden" in Trump's tax returns (which themselves have been hidden, but apparently someone has passed a 1995 return on to the New York Times) is that Trump lost such an amazing amount of money for that year, nearly a billion dollars, that he was able to spread that loss over his taxes in an 18 year period. Assuming he made no more than $50 million a year in those years — from 1992 to 2010 — he would have been able to do so without paying any taxes.
He calls that "smart." I call that, "Wow, you lost almost a billion dollars in craptastic investments and business mismanagement, and now you're running for President on the claim that you are a master of business and will turn our nation's economy around?"
'The $916 million loss certainly could have eliminated any federal income taxes Mr. Trump otherwise would have owed on the $50,000 to $100,000 he was paid for each episode of “The Apprentice,” or the roughly $45 million he was paid between 1995 and 2009 when he was chairman or chief executive of the publicly traded company he created to assume ownership of his troubled Atlantic City casinos. Ordinary investors in the new company, meanwhile, saw the value of their shares plunge to 17 cents from $35.50, while scores of contractors went unpaid for work on Mr. Trump’s casinos and casino bondholders received pennies on the dollar.'
Trump's response to all this: a claim on Twitter that "I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them."[1] Except that they seem to have worked out great for Trump, so why would he want to fix them? Why would he consider them broken when it mean the was able to turn a YUGE business loss into a tremendous tax advantage.
'But the most important revelation from the 1995 tax documents is just how much Mr. Trump may have benefited from a tax provision that is particularly prized by America’s dynastic families, which, like the Trumps, hold their wealth inside byzantine networks of partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations.
The provision, known as net operating loss, or N.O.L., allows a dizzying array of deductions, business expenses, real estate depreciation, losses from the sale of business assets and even operating losses to flow from the balance sheets of those partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations onto the personal tax returns of men like Mr. Trump. In turn, those losses can be used to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income from, say, book royalties or branding deals.
Better still, if the losses are big enough, they can cancel out taxable income earned in other years. Under I.R.S. rules in 1995, net operating losses could be used to wipe out taxable income earned in the three years before and the 15 years after the loss.'
All of which proves, not that Trump is particularly "smart" or "know"ing of taxes, but that he can hire really good tax lawyers. Which is perfectly legal, whether or not it is admirable.
Besides demonstrating that, and his ability to incur a massive business losses, we have also learned another reason why Trump is under almost constant audit. As one commenter notes, "The I.R.S., when they see a negative $916 million, that has to pop out."
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[1] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/782541307168391168
Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found – The New York Times
The Republican nominee reported nearly $1 billion in losses in 1995, opening the door to tax avoidance in subsequent years.
