Hillary Uses Same Tax Write Off as Trump

Vincent J. Curtis

5 Oct 2016

The finance blog Zero Hedge broke the story yesterday that Hillary Clinton used in 2015 the same tax write-off deduction that she accuses Donald Trump of being unpatriotic for using himself over twenty years ago.  I guess Hillary never expected anyone in the media actually to scrutinize her entire return.

The extract from Hillary’s published return is presented below and was taken from the Zero Hedge report.  (N.B. the image won't transfer.  You can see the original at the Zero Hedge report.  I've tweeted the link.)  The extract is from page seventeen.  The “awkward” deduction in the amount of $699,540.20 is for “Net Long Term Capital Gain or Loss,” which is the line item Trump used twenty years prior.  It is the deduction Hillary accuses Trump of being unpatriotic for using.

Admittedly, 700 grand is small potatoes compared to 900 million, but Trump’s wealth is found mostly in illiquid capital assets, such as office buildings and golf courses, things you can’t easily buy and sell like stocks.  If the market goes against you and your assets are illiquid, you are in a world of hurt.

Hillary’s wealth, estimated at being $200 million, is not tied up in illiquid capital holdings.  Her wealth is less exposed to the vagaries of the real estate market and the state of the economy.  Her opportunities for declaring capital losses as a deduction are far smaller than Trump’s are; but given the opportunity to reduce her tax exposure, Hillary took it.  As would anyone.  The tax code is not so stupid that it will take one’s life’s blood; the code realizes that you can’t get blood from a stone, that it is counter-productive to kill the golden goose if it catches cold, and that is why business losses are deductible from earnings.

When it comes to hammering Trump, however, Hillary will grab any tong available, even if her use of it makes her a lying hypocrite.

Continuing from yesterday, the U.K. Daily Mail followed up on my suggestion that large donors to Hillary Clinton avoided U.S. taxes on a scale undreamed of.  Here is what they found:

“Apple has been named as the biggest corporate tax avoider in the United States after booking $218.55 billion of profit offshore last year.  The tech giant was able to save $65.08 billion that it should have paid in tax thanks to its convoluted arrangements.

The report revealed that last year three quarters of the Fortune 500 companies use subsidiaries in offshore tax havens where they sent a total of $2.42 trillion of income.  In the US alone this amounted to $715.62 billion in tax which they avoided paying.

The report reveals that the top 30 tax avoiders based in America collectively operated a staggering 2,509 tax haven subsidiaries.  Apple was the top with three foreign subsidiaries, all in Ireland, but they constituted $218.55 billion of profit booked overseas.

In second was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer with 181 offshore subsidiaries through which it funneled $192.57 billion of income.  The report also highlighted sports giant Nike which holds $10.57 billion offshore whilst Goldman Sachs had £21.9 billion in foreign companies.  The investment bank had 987 offshore subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, 537 of which are in Bermuda despite not operating a single legitimate office in that country.

The study was written in the US by pressure group Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  Matthew Gardner of the ITEP said: ‘The hard fact is that the US tax code incentivizes tax haven abuse by allowing companies to indefinitely defer taxes on offshore profits until they are ‘repatriated’. “

Isn’t this exactly what Donald Trump said needed to be fixed?  Didn’t Trump say that presidential leadership was needed in order to bring all those U.S. corporate profits back home so that the money can be invested in creating jobs in America?  When Donald Trump says that he knows more about the U.S. tax code than any previous candidate for office, was he just blowing smoke, or do these facts establish that he has finger on the pulse of a major impediment to economic growth in America: the tax code and Obamacare?

The Mexican Times, most other members of the MSM, and the Hillary campaign have all seized upon something to hammer Trump with, but upon closer inspection it seems to prove what Trump has been saying all along is true.  We also learn that Hillary's capacity for self-interested deception is truly staggering.

The question is, is there enough time for the electorate to realize that they have been had?

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