loss of almost $1 billion. did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying federal income taxes for of course i do. of course i do. so how is it someone who s supposedly so rich pays no federal income tax. you re probably not going to like the answer. cnn senior investigative reporter drew griffin reports. reporter: it s become the center of democratic attacks against him. the idea, the speculation that billionaire donald trump pays no federal income tax. not only is that possibly true, says real estate tax attorney, richard lipton, in the big world of big league real estate, it s perfectly league and almost expected. most real estate investors pay very little, if any, tax provided that they are active real estate investors. reporter: that s right. active real estate investors can pay little to absolutely no taxes. and in sunday night s debate, donald trump made no apologies about it. see, i understand the tax code better than anybody that s ever run for president. c
though the building s market value is going up. if trump can add up enough on-paper losses year by year, he can basically erase his taxable income from the property itself and even income from other trump operations, like licensing, leasing, and tv reality shows. money, money, money, money reporter: real estate expert richard lipton says it wouldn t be surprising if all these paper losses reduced donald trump s federal income tax to zero. so if you re running a tv show, call it the apprentice, and you have real estate and it s generating losses, the tax losses from the real estate can be used to offset the income from your tv show. reporter: and the losses can be huge, even when your income is huge. thus, in 1995, donald trump files a tax return with a $916 million loss, but still, apparently, lives like a king. don t blame trump, says tax
income from the property itself and even income from other trump operations, like licensing, leasing, and tv reality shows. money, money, money, money reporter: real estate expert richard lipton says it wouldn t be surprising if all these paper losses reduced donald trump s federal income tax to zero. so if you re running a tv show, call it the apprentice, and you have real estate and it s generating losses, the tax losses from the real estate can be used to offset the income from your tv show. reporter: and the losses can be huge, even when your income is huge. thus, in 1995, donald trump files a tax return with a $916 million loss, but still, apparently, lives like a king. don t blame trump, says tax analyst and journalist lee shepard, blame the politicians who wrote the rules to benefit big developers. that s why we say that
for years and you said you paid state and employee and real estate and property taxes. did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying taxes? of course i do. and so do all of her donors. i know many of her donors. they take massive write offs. a lot lot of my write off was depreciation and she always allowed this. the people that give her all this money won it. i understand the tax code better than anyone and it s complex. hillary clinton has friends that want the provisions. that s very important to wall street people and they want the carried interest provision and it s interesting why she is leaving carried interest. i pay tremendous numbers of taxes and i used it and so did
into big diversion tonight. anything to talk about the way your campaign is exploding. trump pacing around the stage and hovering over clinton. the billionaire admitting he wrote off nearly $1 billion in losses and didn t pay federal income taxes in some years. did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying personal income tax. of course i do. reporter: trump making a c contradicti contradiction. he and i haven t spoken. i disagree. you disagree with your running mate? reporter: clinton found herself on the run as well. including the speeches to banks. as i recall, that was something i said about abraham