--- title: Donald Trump Avoided Reporting Millions in Taxable Income description: Donald Trump used a loophole to avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income in the early 1990s canonical: https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-01T12:48:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:23.369Z article:section: Politics og:title: Report: Trump Used Controversial Tax Loophole to Save Millions og:description: The loophole he used in the 1990s has since been outlawed og:url: https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3829afdb737cdd9/6988ac6afb4eac221388fb0b/donald-trump-tax-loophole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Michigan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Report: Trump Used Controversial Tax Loophole to Save Millions twitter:description: The loophole he used in the 1990s has since been outlawed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3829afdb737cdd9/6988ac6afb4eac221388fb0b/donald-trump-tax-loophole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Report: Donald Trump Took Advantage of Controversial Tax Loophole > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 1, 2016 12:48 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at Macomb Community College South Campus on Oct. 31, 2016 in Warren, Michigan. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at Macomb Community College South Campus on Oct. 31, 2016 in Warren, Michigan. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 1, 2016 12:48 PM UTC Donald Trump [used a controversial loophole](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/donald-trump-tax.html) to avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income in the early 1990s, according to a new report. Because of the loophole, Trump possibly avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in federal personal income taxes, the New York _Times_ reported Monday. The legally questionable loophole he used has since been outlawed, and at the time, Trump’s lawyers cautioned that the Internal Revenue Service would likely declare the maneuver improper, according to the _Times_. There’s no suggestion Trump broke the law, however. These findings come after Trump [admitted](http://fortune.com/2016/10/09/presidential-debate-donald-trump-taxes-2/) to using a [$916 million loss](http://time.com/4515840/donald-trump-tax-records-loss/) in 1995 to avoid paying federal income taxes. The Republican presidential nominee has yet to release [his tax returns](http://fortune.com/2016/08/05/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-donald-trumps-tax-returns/), bucking a decades-old [presidential tradition](http://time.com/4326267/donald-trump-presidential-tax-returns-list/) and prompting suggestions that he could be “[hiding something](http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/donald-trump-tax-returns-income/).” He has repeatedly said he will release them after the IRS completes a “routine audit,” but the audit does not prevent him from releasing the returns. [Read more in the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/donald-trump-tax.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/"},"headline":"Report: Donald Trump Took Advantage of Controversial Tax Loophole","datePublished":"2016-11-01T12:48:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:23.369Z","description":"The loophole, which has since been outlawed, may have saved him tens of millions of dollars in early '90s","url":"https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3829afdb737cdd9/6988ac6afb4eac221388fb0b/donald-trump-tax-loophole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3829afdb737cdd9/6988ac6afb4eac221388fb0b/donald-trump-tax-loophole.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Michigan","caption":"GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Michigan","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4552941/donald-trump-loophole-tax-income/","name":"Report: Donald Trump Took Advantage of Controversial Tax Loophole"}}]}] ```