Donald Trump reportedly used a tax-avoidance method his own lawyers advised against

Donald Trump speaks in Florida
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Donald Trump avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in personal income taxes during the 1990s using a tax avoidance move his own lawyers argued the IRS would find to be improper, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. "Whatever loophole existed was not 'exploited' here, but stretched beyond any recognition," said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The maneuver, later outlawed by Congress, allowed Trump to avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars of income at a time when he was struggling with financial problems. Trump declined to comment for the Times article.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.