--- title: Donald Trump Taxes: Candidate Has Hit Others on Taxes description: A new report is calling renewed attention to Donald Trump's old tax tweets. canonical: https://time.com/4516001/donald-trump-taxes-twitter/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-02T19:25:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:57:39.135Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Has Long Blasted Others for Not Paying Taxes og:description: "HALF of Americans don't pay income tax despite crippling govt debt..." og:url: https://time.com/4516001/donald-trump-taxes-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f5921bb5cb8055d/6988a85b0a4a22d5a79cb7a6/donald-trump-taxes-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Has Long Blasted Others for Not Paying Taxes twitter:description: "HALF of Americans don't pay income tax despite crippling govt debt..." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f5921bb5cb8055d/6988a85b0a4a22d5a79cb7a6/donald-trump-taxes-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Has Long Blasted Others for Not Paying Taxes by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 2, 2016 7:25 PM CUT  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump motions to the crowd after speaking at a rally, in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 1, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump motions to the crowd after speaking at a rally, in Manheim, Pa., on Oct. 1, 2016.John Locher—AP by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 2, 2016 7:25 PM CUT Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has long been critical of the American tax code and, as he often does, the businessman has repeated taken to airing his grievances on Twitter. But a recent report from the New York _Times_ that showed [a $916 million income loss in 1995 could have kept Trump from having to pay federal income taxes for nearly two decades](http://time.com/4515840/donald-trump-tax-records-loss/?xid=homepage "undefined") is calling renewed attention to Trump’s old tax tweets. For example, in 2012, Trump was critical of half of Americans who he said do not pay income tax “despite crippling \[government\] debt. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/172772609627394049) Later that year, he criticized a “Facebook billionaire” for giving up his U.S. citizenship in order to “save taxes.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/202114217854242817) Here are a few more. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/673885376742825984) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/702632410341576704) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/702894623761498112) The Trump campaign threatened legal action against the _Times_, but did not deny the substance of the report. The candidate himself suggested in last week’s first presidential debate that avoiding a massive tax bill would make him “smart.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4516001/donald-trump-taxes-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4516001/donald-trump-taxes-twitter/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Has Long Blasted Others for Not Paying Taxes","datePublished":"2016-10-02T19:25:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:57:39.135Z","description":"\"HALF of Americans don't pay income tax despite crippling govt debt...\"","url":"https://time.com/4516001/donald-trump-taxes-twitter/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Election 2016","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f5921bb5cb8055d/6988a85b0a4a22d5a79cb7a6/donald-trump-taxes-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f5921bb5cb8055d/6988a85b0a4a22d5a79cb7a6/donald-trump-taxes-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump motions to the crowd after speaking at a rally, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016, in Manheim, Pa. 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