Trump's tax ride not a mark of genius

So, The Donald declared a $900 million loss in 1995 that may have resulted in his not having any tax liability ever since. As much as I despise him, I have to tell you he did nothing wrong. The tax laws allow a “real estate professional” to credit business losses against future income thereby reducing future tax liability until the losses are fully worked off.

But, let’s be clear: This only gets The Donald back that part of the loss that would’ve been taxed. This is only a fraction of the loss. He eats the rest. All that this loss demonstrates is that The Donald had a train wreck of a business year as a result of bad business decisions and/or bad luck. Any trained tax preparer, let alone a CPA, would know of this tax mechanism.

It certainly does not demonstrate “genius” as claimed by an apparently deluded Rudy Giuliani. It certainly isn’t evidence that he is a good businessman. In fact, any businessman who loses money for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes is either an idiot or a psychopath. While I have a long list of negative adjectives I might use to describe The Donald. it would be neither of these (well, maybe “psychopath”).

This story was originally published October 14, 2016 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Trump's tax ride not a mark of genius."