During
Monday night’s debate when Hillary Clinton suggested that Dangerous Donald paid
“0” in federal income taxes in past years Trump interrupted her to say that this
means he was smart.
A friend,
client, and fellow “Twiit” called for my help in responding to Trump’s
interruption in a tweet.
My response
to her was that there is “nothing wrong
with legally using {the} Tax Code to
reduce or eliminate taxes”. I did point
out that “Trump has shown his stupidity
in so many other ways”.
In a
subsequent tweet I said –
“If {Dangerous and Deplorable Donald} Trump legally used Tax Code to pay no tax {the}
problem is with the Code. But {there
is} no excuse for not releasing {his} tax returns. He is hiding something.”
While I
would never say that Trump was smart about anything – he was not wrong in using
whatever legal deductions, credits, and exclusions were available to him to
minimize or eliminate his tax liability.
The courts have continually upheld the right of the American taxpayer to
use whatever legal means available to reduce or eliminate tax liability – and that
American taxpayers have absolutely no legal, moral, or ethical obligation to
pay any more federal income tax than they have to within the context of the US
Tax Code.
If Trump did indeed pay no federal
income tax in any years
(making him one of the “infamous 47%) through
the use of legal tax loopholes then the
blame lies with the mucking fess that is the US Tax Code, as written by the
idiots in Congress. This is truly one
of the very few, if not the only, instance where Trump is not wrong or at
fault.
It is obvious
that the current Tax Code needs to be totally shredded and rewritten from
scratch. The answer is not to raise tax
rates on those considered to be wealthy, but to remove preferences and
loopholes and the delivery of federal social welfare benefits.
Of course
there is nothing to indicate that Trump prepared a complete and honest tax
return, since he refuses to release his returns. He has certainly not been honest in the use of his Foundation, and has been fined for his indiscretions here by the IRS. There is no doubt that the information on the tax returns he refuses to release (and which he never will release) would somehow prove that he lies, as he does about everything else,
when bragging about his income, his wealth, and his charity.
TTFN
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