Trump Used “Legally Dubious” Methods To Avoid Taxes

Documents obtained by the New York Times show that in the early 90s Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used “legally dubious” tax avoidance maneuvers to avoid financial ruin. His lawyers at the time warned Trump that the moves would likely be deemed improper by the IRS if he were audited, the Times reports. One maneuver Trump used may have allowed him to avoid paying tens of millions in personal income taxes by working around reporting cancelled debt as taxable income. “Whatever loophole existed was not ‘exploited’ here, but stretched beyond any recognition,” Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Times. The exact implications of Trump’s moves are impossible to know, as he has not released his tax returns. In response to inquiries by the Times, Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, “Your email suggests either a fundamental misunderstanding or an intentional misreading of the law.”