Trump a genius if he paid no taxes, say allies

Washington, Oct 3: Republican presidential nominee Dold Trump’s allies have said the billioire is a “genius” if he paid no federal income taxes for 18 years. According to the New York Times, it received some of Trump’s 1995 tax documents revealing $915 million losses that allowed him to legally avoid paying taxes, BBC reported. The real estate mogul’s camp refused to confirm or deny the report, but said the filing was “illegally obtained”, while Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign called it a “bombshell”.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the New York Times article was a “very good story” because it showcased the “genius” of Trump and that it would only underline Trump as the best qualified to ease tax policy on working people.

According to BBC, there is no evidence at this point that Trump did anything improper. Rudy Giuliani, a close adviser to Trump, said the Republican was an “absolute genius” if he avoided taxes.

“A lot of the people that are poor take advantage of loopholes and pay no taxes,” the former New York mayor said on Sunday. “Those are loopholes also.”

Trump himself played down the report on Sunday. “I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for President and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes,” he tweeted. During the first presidential debate last Monday, Clinton attacked Trump for not releasing his tax returns, as all previous White House candidates have done since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The Democrat suggested he was hiding “something terrible” and that he had perhaps not paid any federal income tax. He replied: “That makes me smart.” The New York Times in its article said three pages of documents were anonymously sent last month to one of its reporters who had written about Trump’s finces. A former accountant for the property tycoon, Jack Mitnick, whose me appears as Trump’s tax preparer of the filings, said the documents appeared to be authentic copies of portions of the 1995 returns, according to the newspaper. Trump’s campaign did not directly address the authenticity of the excerpts, but the New York Times said his lawyer had emailed the newspaper arguing that publication of the records was illegal. The Republican candidate’s camp accused the New York Times, which has endorsed the Democratic candidate for President, of being “an extension of the Clinton campaign”. Trump, the campaign added, was 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”. (IANS)