TAXES/TRUMP TAXES: “President Trump wrote off more than $100 million in business losses to reduce his federal taxes in 2005, according to forms made public on Tuesday night: a rare glimpse at documents that he had refused to disclose since becoming a candidate for the nation’s highest office.
Mr. Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on reported income of $150 million, an effective tax rate of 25 percent, according to forms disclosed on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show. By claiming losses, Mr. Trump apparently saved millions of dollars in taxes that he would otherwise have owed.
The White House responded without even waiting for the show to air, issuing a statement that seemed to confirm the authenticity of the forms even as it defended Mr. Trump and assailed MSNBC for publicizing them. ‘Before being elected president, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world, with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,’ the statement said.
The White House described the business losses as a ‘large-scale depreciation for construction,’ but did not elaborate. In addition to the federal income taxes in 2005, the statement said, he paid ‘tens of millions of dollars in other taxes, such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes, and this illegally published return proves just that.’ “
-Peter Baker and Jesse Drucker, “Trump Wrote Off $100 Million in Losses in 2005, Leaked Forms Show,” The New York Times online, March 14, 2017