Trump business losses revealed

Tycoon could have avoided paying taxes for up to 18 years

Donald Trump’s business losses in 1995 were so large they could have allowed him to avoid paying income taxes for as many as 18 years, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

The newspaper said it anonymously received the first pages of Mr Trump’s 1995 state income tax filings in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

They show a net loss of 915,729,293 dollars (£705,574,108) in federal taxable income for the year.

That Mr Trump was losing money during the early to mid-1990s – a period marked by bankruptcies and poor business decisions – was already well established.

But the records obtained by the New York Times show losses of such a magnitude that they potentially allowed him to avoid paying taxes for years, possibly until the end of the last decade.

Mr Trump’s campaign lashed out at the newspaper for publishing the records and accused the newspaper of working to benefit the Republican nominee’s presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“The New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests,” the campaign said.

It called Mr Trump “a highly skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required”.

The campaign said Mr Trump had paid “hundreds of millions” of dollars in other kinds of taxes over the years.

1995 was not a good year for Donald Trump.