‘It’s certainly feasible that Trump is paying no income tax at all’
emails and mobile phone numbers of nearly 200 senior officials, including congressmen, were posted online by suspected Russian hackers.
Speculation surrounding Mr Trump’s taxes came after Mrs Clinton released her latest annual return, for 2015, last week. It showed she and her husband, Bill, paid 30.6 per cent of their $10.6 million earnings in federal income tax.
Tax experts suggested Mr Trump could legally have taken advantage of generous deductions open to property developers. Len Green, the chairman of the Green Group, a tax consulting service, said: “It’s certainly feasible that he may be paying zero.”
Mr Trump has more than 500 businesses in his property empire. Successful companies can legitimately be shown to make losses using accounting methods such as depreciating the value of buildings over time and factoring in operating costs. As an “active real estate developer”, Mr Trump would be allowed to deduct such losses when assessing his taxable income. “I’m not appalled by this at all, our system allows it,” said Mr Green. “Is it a special case for real estate developers? Yes. But we encourage development in the US.”
A handful of Mr Trump’s annual returns have emerged over the years through other sources.
Those showed that in 1978 and 1979 he reported negative income, meaning no tax liability, following losses on New York properties. The same happened in 1991 and 1993 after losses on casino and hotel businesses. When the returns from the 1990s emerged in June this year Mr Trump’s response was: “Welcome to the real estate business.”
Mr Trump has said he cannot release his returns, under the advice of lawyers, because he is under a routine audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The IRS itself has said that does not prevent him releasing the returns. Prof Peter Navarro, economic adviser to Mr Trump, said: “[The Democrats] just want to know how much he’s worth so they can plan their strategy. I would advise him not to release them.”