To the Editor:

Re “Forms Suggest Kushner Paid Tax Bills of $0” (front page, Oct. 14):

As a lifelong Democrat, I am discouraged by your publication of this article. My knowledge of tax laws, as a former investment manager of institutional funds and trusts, confirms that the Kushners did nothing underhanded, despite what this article insinuates. They only followed our tax code as thousands of other large and small real estate investors do.

If the writers of the article want to propose that depreciation and depletion allowances be changed or eliminated, that is a reasonable point of view. But the characterization of depreciation as phantom losses or a “lucrative giveaway ” for anyone holding investment property is simply inflammatory.

Their argument should be with Congress and the tax policies it has enacted, not the Kushners’ use of them.

Peter V. Haight

Los Angeles

To the Editor:

You report that 37-year- old Jared Kushner, with a net worth of $324 million , has likely paid no federal income taxes during five of the past eight years.