This week, The New York Times released a tax return from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for the year 1995. It shows that he lost $916 million that year. That means that he didn’t have to be any taxes on that money and may have used this loophole to get out of paying those taxes for 18 years.
We are not sure, but Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, may have been the one to leak them. She signed it Marla Trump. If she did leak the pages, it was perfectly legal for her to release them.
Trump may have used another loophole to under-declare his salary by millions. It may have been a bad year on paper, but Trump actually made money that year.
Trump’s Atlantic City casinos went public that year with a $300 million offering. By the end of the year, the stock went up to $21 from $14. On paper, Trump made $69 million.
Yet, he told the tax authorities that he lost nearly $916 million. He said that he only made $6,108 in “wages, salary, tips, etc.”
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he made $583,333 for the company he launched that year, Trump Hotels & Resorts. Trump received payments directly from the company.
He could’ve set it up to defer payments to himself. Many executives do that to put off paying taxes. He was also reimbursed $733,000 in monthly expenses payments. Since it is a legitimate business expense, he technically didn’t have to pay taxes on it. It should’ve been included as wages.
Through all of his corporate entities, he made $4.8 million in 1995. This was way understated in his tax returns.
He also bought a hotel in 1995, the Trump Regency. He had owned it himself, but he lost it a few years earlier. He bought it back from Chemical Bank. They agreed to cancel the $39 million mortgage that Trump owed on the property.
Trump has been trying to avoid taxes for decades, yet his supporters somehow think he wants to help them. He’s just in it for himself, and is a drain on the economy his supporters literally pay for out of pocket to make up for it.
Here is a news clip about these tax papers:
Featured image by Mike Licht on Flickr/CC-By-2.0 Generic license.
