Donald Trump has said he used U.S. tax laws “brilliantly” to protect his companies and his employees - and possibly legally avoid paying income taxes for two decades - but his accountant says he did all the work.
Donald Trump played no part in preparing the 1995 returns that suggest he filed a nearly $1 billion loss that helped him avoid paying federal taxes, his former accountant told Inside Edition.
“I did all the tax preparation, he never saw the product until it was presented to him for his signature,” Jack Mitnick, 80, replied when asked how involved Trump was in his tax preparations. “I’m the one who did all the work.”
The Florida-based retiree verified the authenticity of documents that were anonymously mailed to the New York Times, telling the show that the “face pages look authentic.” Unlike every other presidential contender since Richard Nixon, Trump has refused to release his tax returns.
Mitnick’s decision to talk to the press has alarmed accountants and an attorney who represents accounting firms, who note that laws and ethics codes generally prohibit accountants from breaching client confidentiality.
Mitnick kept mum on one account. Asked who would be voting for in November, he told Inside Edition: “That’s confidential.”
Trump has sought to turn the discovery of the tax documents to his benefit, insisting on the campaign trail that he was acting to protect his company and his employees.
I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2016
“I have brilliantly used” the tax laws, Trump said Monday in Colorado, saying he was carrying out his “fiduciary responsibility to pay no more taxes than is legally required.”
Or, he added, “to put it another way, to pay as little taxes as legally possibly.” Still, he said the U.S. tax laws are “unfair” and that he’d fix them, “despite being a big beneficiary of the laws.”
“I'm working for you now, I'm not working for Trump,” he said. “I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone, which is why I'm the one who can truly fix them.”
Trump surrogates, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have said the returns show Trump’s skills as a businessman and savvy tax payer.
“He's a genius at how to take advantage of legal remedies that can help your company survive and grow,” Giuliani told ABC News on Sunday.
“There's no one who has shown more genius in their way to maneuver about the tax code as he rightfully used the laws to do that,” Christie said on Fox News Sunday.
Mitnick told CNN on Wednesday that the returns “were entirely created by us” and that Trump had “virtually zero” involvement in navigating the tax code.
Asked whether Trump had displayed any ability to work the tax code as he’s said, Mitnick said: “Not when I dealt with him.”
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