Patton: Trump's Tax Secrets Are Slowly Being Revealed

The voting public is well aware that Donald Trump has proposed building a wall separating the United States and Mexico. Americans are less cognizant that Trump has already built a second wall. This one keeps the public away from his income tax returns. However, that wall is slowly coming down brick by brick as journalists unearth bits and pieces of information revealing Trump's avoidance of federal income taxes.

Why should voters care about Trump's federal income tax returns? Because they reveal a lot about a person who aspires to be president of the United States. They may tell us (a) does Trump have any business conflicts, particularly those involving Russia, which might influence his decisions as president; (b) does Trump pay any taxes at all; (c) is he as rich as he claims to be; (d) is he keeping money off-shore; (d) does he abuse tax loopholes, and (e) does Trump give as much to charity as he claims.

What do we know so far? "In recent months, news organizations have unearthed public records that give a glimpse of what Mr. Trump paid in income taxes for eight of the last 41 years. The records show Mr. Trump paid income taxes in 1975, 1976, and 1977 about $71,000 in all from a total reported income of about $218,000 over those three years. For three other years - 1978, 1979 and 1984 - records show Mr. Trump paid no income taxes at all. In 1991 and 1993, New Jersey gambling commission records indicate he paid little or no taxes." (Steve Ederaug, New York Times, 8/12/2016).

Recently, the New York Times knocked a gaping hole in Trump's wall of secrecy. "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." (David Barstow, Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner and Megan Twomey, New York Times, 10/01/2016).

Of course, taxes are a zero-sum game. For every dollar of federal taxes Trump doesn't pay, you and I do. "The major takeaway from the three pages of Trump's 1995 returns that the Times made public is that Trump is right when he says the system is rigged. What he doesn't say is that it's rigged in his favor and in the favor of people like him - and against regular people, those of us who earn money, pay income tax on it, and financially support the country in which we live." (Allan Sloan, Washington Post, 10/2/2016

The other thing that these findings do is undermine Trump's reputation as a wizard business man who consistently makes piles of money. "Within a few short years (1992 to 1995), the mogul saw his Trump Shuttle airline venture fail, his bet on Atlantic City casinos sour, and the value of his trophy Manhattan buildings, such as the Plaza Hotel, bought at the height of the '80s real estate bubble, drop below what he owed on them." (Tim Logan, Dan Adams, and Beth Healey, Boston Globe, 10/04/2016).

"It's hard to overstate the potential importance of that (the New York Times') revelation. It rendered laughable the rationalizations Trump and his camp have given to explain why he, unlike almost every major- party candidate for the past four decades, has refused to release his income taxes. It makes a mockery of his claim that he is a brilliant businessman and highlights his true record, with its repeated recourse to bankruptcy, his exploitation of every nook and cranny of the tax code, and his stiffing of contractors even while he himself led a lavish lifestyle." (Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe, 10/05/2016)

An editorial in the Boston Globe (10/04/2016) puts into perspective the effect of Trump avoiding paying his fair share of taxes. "Those taxes that Trump didn't pay would have gone to the police he says he supports. They would have gone to the immigration enforcement he says we need. At the first presidential debate, Trump railed against the state of airports in the United States. Where, exactly, does he imagine that the money to build and maintain public infrastructure comes from?"

Certainly not from Donald Trump.

Gary Patton is the author of two books, Selling Mt. Washington, a political satire, and Outtastatahs: Newcomers' Adventures in New Hampshire, a work of regional humor.

(photo by Gage Skidmore)