No, Donald Trump! Avoiding Taxes Doesn’t Make You a Genius
In one of the biggest bombshells in this election campaign season, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump was able to avoid what could have been 18 years’ worth of federal taxes by declaring a loss of almost 1 billion dollars in the 90’s. The organization obtained such information through a snail mail that was delivered to one of their reporters.
The leak of such information has confirmed what most people have thought all along- that Donald Trump has not paid his fair share of taxes. This was perhaps one of the main reasons why he has refused to release his tax returns– a tradition that has been upheld for several election cycles by past presidential nominees.
This could have spelled the end for previous candidates, but it seems like to not have affected Trump. If anything, he has neither confirmed nor denied the reports. In fact, he said that the evasion of taxes make him a genius and not a crook.
The system is rigged
One of the biggest reasons why he keeps on bragging tax evasion is because he doesn’t want the money he has paid to go to the pockets of Washington politicians. He also said that the system is rigged and he has just managed to move around the tax loopholes. Let’s assume for a moment that he has done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. The bigger question though is, does this make him a genius?
In one of his rallies, he said that he knows more about taxes than probably anyone else. This is why he was able to make his way around them.
Not a genius
To begin with, let us make it clear that he didn’t necessarily prepare his taxes nor did he find those loopholes. In fact, one of his former accountants resurfaced and said that he has done almost all of the tasks. Another reason is that even if it makes him a genius, it still is an act of pure evil.
Millions of Americans work each day so that they can provide for their families. All of them pay federal taxes. No one woke up each day and thought of ways to evade taxes. This makes Trump even more out of step among ordinary Americans. For someone who has tried all his life to rig the system, he sure has the audacity to say that he alone can fix it.
Paying taxes might be something that a lot of people hate doing. It seems totally unfair. However, being a part of a bigger society, it is fair game. For as long as you use the roads, bridges, public transportation, public education and other government services for free, you have no right to demand not paying taxes. Although he is correct that there is a chance that these taxes will just be in the pocket of politicians, it does not mean he should avoid paying a billion dollars! It’s not like the US government has not spent the taxes on anything important.
To top it all, there are only two options for Trump here. The first one is to claim that he is a genius to evade this much- which proves that he isn’t that smart after all for losing a billion dollars on casino. The second option is to admit his wrongdoing and apologize (or even release his tax returns)- something that he most probably not do.
Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image by Michael Vadon (Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
2nd image courtesy of Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net
