White House candidate Donald Trump's
aides have said he is a "genius" if a report is true that he paid no
federal income taxes for 18 years.
The New York Times said it had
received some of Mr Trump's 1995 tax documents revealing $915m losses
that allowed him to legally avoid paying taxes.The real estate tycoon's camp refused to confirm or deny the report, but said the filing was "illegally obtained".
The campaign of his rival, Hillary Clinton, called it a "bombshell".
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the New York Times article was a "very good story" because it showcased the "genius" of Mr Trump.
Mr Christie told Fox News Sunday the report would only underline that Mr Trump is best qualified to ease tax policy on working people.
Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
There's no evidence at this point that Mr Trump did anything improper. Just because it's legal, however, doesn't mean this revelation isn't potentially damaging. First, Mr Trump has staked his campaign on being a savvy businessman, and posting a financial loss so large that his tax accountant's software couldn't process the number could undermine that claim.
Then there's the fact that Mr Trump has, over the years, condemned prominent Americans, including Barack Obama and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, for not paying enough taxes. Now he looks like a hypocrite.
Hotel impresario Leona Helmsley once famously said that "only little people pay taxes" - and she was excoriated for it. Americans know the wealthy have a multitude of ways to avoid taxes. Knowing is different from seeing the cold, hard evidence, however. At the very least, this latest revelation once again puts Mr Trump on his heels in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
Rudy Giuliani, a close adviser to Mr Trump, also said the Republican nominee was a "genius" if he avoided federal income taxes.
"A lot of the people that are poor take advantage of loopholes and pay no taxes," the former New York mayor told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
"Those are loopholes also."
Mr Trump himself played down the report on Sunday. "I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them. #failing@nytimes," he tweeted.
During the first presidential debate last Monday, Mrs Clinton attacked Mr Trump for not releasing his tax returns, as all previous White House candidates have done since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
The Democratic nominee suggested he was hiding "something terrible" and that he had perhaps not paid any federal income tax. He replied: "That makes me smart."
In its story, the New York Times said three pages of documents were anonymously sent last month to one of its reporters who had written about Mr Trump's finances.
A former accountant for the property tycoon, Jack Mitnick, whose name appears as Mr Trump's tax preparer of the filings, said the documents appeared to be authentic copies of portions of the 1995 returns, according to the newspaper.
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