A portion of one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s much-discussed but never-revealed tax returns was revealed on Tuesday night.
Donald Trump took home over $150 million in 2005. He paid $5.3 million in federal income tax and $31 million in the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), according to DCreport.org.
Trump paid 24 per cent in tax – which is the same amount a married couple with two incomes making about $400,000 per year would pay, the report’s author David Cay Johnston, revealed on MSNBC Tuesday night.
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Global News has not independently verified the report.
The 24 per cent is higher than the roughly 10 per cent the average American pays each year – but below the 27.4 per cent that taxpayers earning $1 million a year average, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
Last year, the president campaigned to have the AMT eliminated. Without the tax in place, he would have paid 4 per cent in taxes in 2005.
The White House responded to the news by saying Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income although it revealed no documentation to back up the claim.
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Trump’s tax returns became an issue during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election campaign when the then-Republican nominee steadfastly refused to release them, claiming they were under audit by the IRS. The IRS refuted his claim.
His opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, frequently mentioned the returns to question whether Trump was as wealthy as he claimed and to also put his financial acumen in question.
“Here’s a pretty incredible fact: There is a non-zero chance that Donald Trump isn’t paying (asterisk)any(asterisk) taxes,” Clinton tweeted, just minutes after releasing her own returns in August.
In October, the New York Times revealed his 1995 tax return which showed Trump lost $915,729,293 that year and could have gone 18 years without paying taxes.
But Trump has yet to release recent returns becoming the first U.S. president to do so since Richard Nixon.
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The returns have become an issue on several other fronts including how much Trump has given to charity. The Washington Post has reported that Trump used donations given by others to pay for legal settlements, political contributions and even purchase portraits of himself.
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Trump threatened to sue the newspaper over the story but has not followed through on his threat.
Since winning the election, Trump has continued to be pushed to reveal his tax returns as the Democrats have attempted to make them a matter of national security.
With the growing stream of revelations of the contacts between the Russian government and members of Trump’s cabinet, advisors and campaign team, some are worried Trump’s foreign business ties will be a conflict of interest issue.
With files from Global and wire services
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