US Report: Trump Could Have Avoided Paying Taxes for 18 Years

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years, according to a report by the New York Times published Saturday.

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According to the report, Trump declared a loss for US$916 million in 1995, and this tax deduction may have allowed him to do so.

The Trump campaign responded with a statement to the report, and said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the New York Times is operating as an extension of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

"Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," the Trump campaign said in a statement.

"That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions," the statement said.

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The newspaper said it obtained Trump's tax records and that they showed he received large tax benefits in the early 1990s from allegedly bad financial deals.

According to the newspaper, experts told their reporters that special tax rules for wealthy people would have let Trump use his US$916 million loss to avoid the equivalent amount of tax income for a period of almost 18 years.

The newspaper said that such loss would have been large enough to eliminate more than US$50 million a year. Trump declined to release his tax records saying they are under a federal audit.