A New York Times investigation based on newly obtained documents has revealed Donald Trump avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes in the late 1990s by using a tax maneuver that was later outlawed by Congress and was even at the time so legally questionable that his own lawyers cautioned him against using it. The maneuver included simply refusing to report hundreds of millions of dollars of canceled debt, which the IRS considers to be taxable income. Steven Rosenthal of the Tax Policy Center told the Times, “Whatever loophole existed was not ‘exploited’ here, but stretched beyond any recognition.” Donald Trump has continued to refuse to release his tax returns.