While you and I are dutifully paying our taxes and many in our community are struggling to just get by, Donald Trump is touting how smart he is to be in a position to have not paid taxes for 18 years.
The New York Times last Saturday reported that the New York businessman declared such a large loss in his 1995 tax return — $916 million — that it “could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.”
And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The analysis by Alan Sloan of The Washington Post states: “By my read of the Trump tax return published by the New York Times, he would have been tax-free because of a $15,818,562 loss reported on Line 11 of the return under ‘Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc.’
“It looks to me that this loss reflects the outrageous, special tax break that real estate developers that people like Trump can get, but that the rest of us can’t.”
So why all of the losses?
Donald Trump touts his acumen as a businessman.
The results show otherwise.
There were four bankruptcies as the result of the collapse of his casino-hotel-airline empire.
You can add the two more bankruptcies in 2004 and 2009 where he was the primary shareholder.
These bankruptcies left investors and unpaid workers holding the bag.
The message you need to send on Election Day is, Donald, you’re fired.
Michael McCarty,
Port Angeles