No surprise here, but Donald Trump isn’t as brilliant as he’d like everyone to believe.
According to the Jack Mitnick, the accountant who prepared Trump’s 1995 tax return (the one that enabled Trump to write off $916 million in losses and legally avoid paying federal taxes for 18 years), the presidential candidate didn't understand the tax code.
As far as I know, and that only goes through late '96, he didn't understand the code," said Jack Mitnick, a former tax adviser for Trump, in an interview with NBC's TODAY. "Nor would he have had the time and the patience to learn the provisions. That's a lifetime of experience."
At a rally in Colorado on Monday, Trump continued to brag that his business acumen allowed him to use the tax code to his benefit.
“I mean, honestly, I have brilliantly — I have brilliantly used those laws. I have often said on the campaign trail that I have a fiduciary responsibility to pay no more tax than is legally required, like anybody else, or put another way: to pay as little tax as legally possible.”
Ahhh, what it must be like to bask in the glow of your own brilliance.
Oh, wait:
But Mitnick claimed it was he who used the tax code in Trump’s favor. “Right. I’m the one who did all the work,” he said.
Never mind.
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