Regarding the Sept. 21 front-page article “Trump used charity’s money to settle his legal disputes”:

Now we must connect the dots between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s charitable contributions and his refusal to release his tax returns.

We know Mr. Trump has not contributed to his charitable foundation since 2009 and that he has not released his tax returns. Contributions to his foundation are tax-deductible — a significant benefit at his presumed taxable income. Why did he stop making those contributions? The foundation has remained active but financed its activities by raising money from others. Most likely, personal contributions are not valuable to Mr. Trump because he is not paying federal income taxes.

We can assume that Mr. Trump earns considerable income, so the explanation for him paying no taxes is most likely some large losses on business, real estate or investment assets. It is probably not just a coincidence that the contributions to his foundation stopped at the same time that the real-estate-related recession began. This may explain why Mr. Trump has refused to disclose his tax returns: Information that he is not the successful businessman he claims to be would be damaging.

It is easier for Mr. Trump to deride this analysis as pure speculation than to explain away a zero percent tax rate on a return he has sworn to. Mr. Trump probably will never release his tax returns. How deplorable it would be to find that he is one of Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” takers.

Paul Horvitz, Ocean City