No he is not a crook. Everything he did was legal. I have used the same business lose carry off myself. It is perfectly legal and has been in our tax law for 100 yrs.
Nevan he claims he lost close to a billion dollars so he would not have to pay any taxes for the next 18 years.
Sounds kind of fraudulent to me.
Donald Trump may have legally avoided paying federal income tax for up to 18 years after reporting a massive $916 million loss on his 1995 New York State tax returns, The New York Times reported Saturday night, citing three pages of Trump's returns sent to a reporter anonymously in the mail. Trump's former accountant verified that the returns are legitimate, Trump's campaign did not deny the Times report, and the revelation was a big topic of conversation on the Sunday morning talk shows. Hillary Clinton's ad team took the afternoon to put together a new ad featuring some highlights from the Sunday shows and Trump's own speeches.
There is nothing fraudulent about it. If a business owner has a loss they are allowed to carry that loss over to the following year's tax return. I had a fire in my business about 15 yrs ago, we had not insurance and lost approx $300,000 worth of assets. We used that loss for several years after that as a deduction towards our 1040 income tax. Nothing illegal nothing fraudulent at all. Of course my $300,000 loss is nothing compared to Trump loss but that is just a matter of scale.
Do you pay more in taxes that you are required too? Do you know anyone who purposely pays more that the IRS requires? No of course not.
my2cents 