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Trump’s legal tax evasion means his business operated ‘at a loss’

US

GOP nominee Donald Trump’s legal evasion of income taxes for nearly two decades means his business was “operating at a loss” at the time, which would not make him a “genius” as his ally, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, would like voters to believe, suggests an analyst.

Keith Preston, the chief editor and director at AttacktheSystem.com, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday in regard to earlier remarks by Giuliani.

“The man's a genius. He knows how to operate the tax code to the benefit of the people he's serving,” the Republican politician said in an interview with CNN on Sunday, a day after the New York Times said that the billionaire businessman reported a loss of $916 million on his 1995 income tax returns.

The tax deduction is said to be so substantial that it could have allowed Trump to legally avoid paying taxes for a period of 18 years.

A general view of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, September 29, 2016 in New York City. (photo by AFP)

Preston explained that businesses in the US “have to report their gross revenue and… any expenditures are allowed to be deducted from their gross revenue, so their taxable income is only their net revenue after expenses have been deducted.”

“When you have a business that’s actually losing money, the way it works is that all of your expenses become tax deductible because you simply don’t have any net revenue, of which to pay taxes on. It appears that that was the case with Donald Trump with the business difficulty that he experienced previously.”

The Virginia-based analyst affirmed that the real estate mogul had not resorted to any illegal activity just as Guiliani (pictured above)  said, yet suggesting that this means he was not very successful in his business..

"It shows what a genius he is. It shows he was able to preserve his enterprise and that he was able to build it," Guiliani reiterated.

According to Preston, “business interests in the Unites States receive all sorts of favors from the state.”

“We can go and look at a lot of different corporate interests throughout the United States and we can identify ways in which corporations are able to avoid paying taxes for all sorts of other reasons,” he said, describing “tax loopholes” a serious problem in the US economy.

Trump has been under pressure by the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to release his tax returns like any other candidate running for president in the country.


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

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