The New York Times seems to think it is a scandal that tax losses were reported by Donald Trump when he was running a major real estate development company during an epic real estate crash.  The Times claims that it legally obtained from unidentified sources "printouts from Mr. Trump's official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994." It reports: The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings.  They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade. As anyone even vaguely familiar with business knows, non-cash expenses such a depreciation are wonderful things for the investor.  They shelter actual cash income from taxation.  President trump pointed this out a couple of...(Read Full Post)