Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton met face to face in the first of the three presidential debates.
Trump discussed his infrastructure plans stressing infrastructure improvements. He mentioned that the US has numerous problems describing that the country is a "debtor nation." He exclaimed that the country needs new infrastructure such as tunnels, roads bridges, airports, schools and hospitals but have no funding because it was spent on Hillary Clinton's programs.
The Democratic nominee interrupted Trump saying that this may have not happened if Trump had paid his federal income tax in years.
Trump replied to Clinton's comment with an unexpected reply saying: "It would be squandered too, believe me."
Comments immediately came in online stating that Trump may have actually revealed that he has not paid income tax over the years. Clinton was not able to key in on what Trump said but nevertheless she came into the attack.
Clinton cited Trump's shoddy practices when it comes to his businesses. The Democratic candidate stated that Trump stiffed people who worked for him over the years such as dishwashers, painters, marble installers, drapery installers and so on.
Trump cannot release his taxes
Reports said that Hillary actually missed a huge opportunity to attack Trump. The Republican nominee said that he cannot release his taxes because of an ongoing audit by the IRS. This remark left Clinton and other commentators present in the debate to speculate as to what the real reason is. Some said that Trump does not want the public to know how little he is actually paying or if he is not paying his taxes at all.
Smart for not paying taxes
Clinton called out Trump for non-payment of taxes and said that these were according to returns from the 70s and 90s which showed that the NY real estate mogul did not pay a single penny.
But instead of defending himself, Trump replied with a remark: "That makes me smart."
Clinton has posted more than 9 years of tax returns online. She could not believe Trump's alibi. She claimed that he might be hiding something stating that it could be any of the following reasons: Trump may owe money to foreign banks or to Wall Street, he has not contributed to charity or his net worth could be less that the tens of billions that he claims it to be.
Reports about Trump's non payment of federal income tax
Early 2016, The Washington Post revealed that Trump did not pay income taxes in 1978 and 1979 based on returns that he submitted to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1981. The same report showed that he has paid income taxes in 1975, 1976 and in 1977. The report said that the real estate mogul took advantage of a tax code provision that allowed him to state negative income. This tax advantage allows real estate owners to depreciate the value of their property to reduce their income.
Still another report from Politico showed that Trump did not pay any income tax way back 1991 and 1993. This was when Trump's casino holdings were in trouble and his finances were under investigation.
Trump's challenge to Hillary
Trump offered Clinton copies of his tax returns if she releases the content of the 30,000+ deleted emails that her party did not turn over to the state department. Clinton said that her decision to use a private server was a mistake but Trump countered this saying that this was not a mistake.
Trump promised that he would make public his tax returns after the audit is finished.
