Donald Trump’s taxes are back in the spotlight after The New York Times published the Republican nominees 1995 income tax returns.
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Donald Trump’s taxes are back in the spotlight after The New York Times published the Republican nominees 1995 income tax returns.
The records appear to show Trump’s businesses lost $916m, (816 million euros) suggesting the loss would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50m (45 million euros) in annual federal taxes over 18 years.
From Washington, our correspondent Stephan Grobe said: “The revelation that Donald Trump could have avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes has become the dominant issue of the election campaign – and potentially opened a can of worms for the Republican nominee. Yes, it was legal, but piling up almost a billion dollars of losses in one year cuts into Trump’s argument of being a great businessman. In addition, as the candidate’s voluminous social media record shows Trump has taken to Twitter many times over the past years to denounce tax avoiders and complain about the misuse of his own tax dollars. By playing with the tax code, Trump is now feeding the anger of his own core base that believes that the system is rigged and the cards are stacked in favor of people like Trump.”
The Trump campaign has said the document was illegally obtained by the New York Times and has accused the newspaper of being biased in favour of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.