Do You Try To Take Advantage Of Tax Deductions/Exemptions?

I don't mind paying taxes. I do resent people who try to get out of it.

Sure, but if someone tells me it is brilliant to lose almost a billion dollars in order to avoid future taxes, I'm not going to believe them.

That wasn't the question. Do you take deductions?

I agree, but I don't know who said such a thing.

Trump isn't contending he lost a billion in order to avoid future taxes.

When I tried to address wealthy liberals and their taxes, I got an ear full from their supporters. I have claimed for some time that those who want higher taxes should stop taking deductions and pay more in taxes, the reactions I got were "Why, that would be stupid if they didn't take their deductions."

I take every write off and deduction I can get my hands on. I'm no longer a home owner since my divorce, I hardly get any write off's. My youngest child is 16 and my oldest 19...

Christie said it today.

I didn't hear that from him, but assuming he did, your beef is with Christie. Trump hasn't said it.

Why bother?

The Clintons took advantage of financial losses to reduce their tax burden.

Hypocrites all.

I do the quick form.

OK, but if your income and expenses were complex enough to require the long form, would you forgo deductions?

I am a poor man. I would take deductions if I deserved them. With me it's a matter of survival. With the rich it's a matter of seeing how much they can get. Democrats and Republicans alike.

It's an 8,000 page tax code.

There's nothing about actual deserving in it.

Any deduction allowed is deserved and entirely appropriate...or the lawmakers that wrote the code are idiots.

Should we fault the taxpayers who take advantage of the code or the folks who wrote it?

Who had a chance to rewrite the code?

Clinton or Trump?

It's not as if the government is spending every dollar we give it wisely.

The State Department under Clinton misplaced $6 billion dollars.

That was our money, not hers.

Trump lost a billion of his money.

That was his money, not ours.

When a company can end up paying nothing, while I have to pay in a certain amount, it may be legal, but it is definitely not right.

And I don't distinguish between political parties, because it is the result of actions by both.

Because Trump is running on his supposedly success as a business man, all of his business dealings should be under scrutiny. We need to know about his business failures as well as his successes. Why you ask? Simply put, that is what Trump is running on.

Losing close to a billion dollars in one year can be seen as a massive business failure. American voters may want to know the details of this massive failure. If he fail at this, he may fail as our president. Releasing his tax returns would probably give us a clearer picture on how good or how bad of a business man he truly is.

He has also made claims of his charitable contributions. If he is making these claims to the American voter, we should be able to see the evidence. That evidence should be contained in his tax returns, unless he is lying.

I agree he should be transparent on his finances

The question of this thread isn't "Should Trump release his tax returns?"

Why he lost almost a billion is a fair question, and I think we will learn more about this over the next few days.

Big companies lose big money.

Apple had a billion + loss

Warren Buffet has had a billion + loss

The commercial real estate market is a high risk/high reward segment.

That he lost the money, may or may not be a reflection of his business acumen. The fact remains though that he gained it all, and more back.

So did Apple and Buffet.

The US Tax code allows taxpayers to offset taxes with losses. You as a private citizen can do it.

Whether or not you agree with it, the reasoning as respects companies is that it's better to have a company remain viable and continue to employ Americans than to go out of business.

As long as he didn't violate the tax code, he didn't do anything that virtually all of us do: Take advantage of whatever deductions, credits and exemptions are made available to us.

If someone doesn't, they are either lazy, ignorant, foolish or among a very rare minority of folks who believe they shouldn't because the government needs more money to waste.

The tax code allows millions of Americans of low income to pay no income tax. Does this mean these people don't have a right to offer opinions about how the government runs? Does it mean any support they express for The Troops, is invalid?

Why?

Just because?

Companies pay millions of dollars of taxes even if they can reduce the amount of income tax they pay. They employ millions of Americans.

Virtually every State in the US has a program for attracting businesses, and to one extent or another they all involve tax breaks.

Even New York.

I know you don't

These aren't corporate returns, they are personal returns. Apple might have lost a billion, Steve Jobs didn't.