This actually helps his case, IMO. He's following the law. He claimed a big enough loss that he didn't have to pay for 18 years. It's not what people want to hear - but he did lose a billion bucks. Trump is an immature ass, but I'm with him on this one. He should just own it - I lost a billion bucks, and the law says I don't have to pay for 18 years because of it. Don't bullshit us with "oh, I"m under audit so you can't see the last 16 years of taxes..."
Trump is actually right here.
Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.
The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Tax experts hired by The Times to analyze Mr. Trump’s 1995 records said tax rules that are especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have allowed Mr. Trump to use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period.
