Hillary Clinton released more of her tax returns on Friday, a tradition that has been embraced by presidential candidates for decades that her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has stubbornly avoided.
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The information, posted on the campaign website, shows that Ms Clinton paid a federal tax rate of 34.7 per cent and a local rate of 9 per cent in 2015. In 2015 the couple made 3,441 and paid a combined effective tax rate of 25.6%.
Trump has said that he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service and will therefore not release his returns.
Federal tax rates have become an issue in the presidential election.
Trump, a NY businessman, and his lawyers have cited an audit by the Internal Revenue Service as a reason for his refusal to release his returns. “What is he trying to hide?”, said Jennifer Palmieri.
Clinton’s running mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with his wife, Anne Holton, released 10 years of tax returns.
A recent Rasmussen polls found that 67 percent of likely voters think that all presidential candidates should make at least their latest tax returns public.
While Trump has cited the IRS audit as his reason for not releasing his taxes, the agency said in a statement this year, “Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information”.
The release is part of an effort to undercut Donald Trump’s character by questioning the celebrity businessman’s record. “All told, the Clintons have made their tax returns public for every year dating back to 1977”, according to the news release. Seeking common ground with blue-collar workers, Clinton frequently mentions Trump’s tax returns as a way of underscoring how his economic plans would benefit his personal interests.
Finally, a tax return could show what kind of financial ties Trump has to foreign countries – including Russian Federation, which has seemingly sought to meddle in the 2016 election through a possible email hack of numerous Democratic campaign entities. For three other years – 1978, 1979 and 1984 – records show Trump paid no income taxes.
Politico has reported that Trump paid zero to very little taxes for two years in the 1990s, and a New York Times business columnist on Friday quoted a number of tax lawyers and accountants saying that could still be the case.
But that’s not uncommon for real estate developers, who have a number of ways to avoid taxes, via legitimate deductions that aren’t available to people who work for a company.
The Clintons’ income was down from 2014, when they had a total income of about $28 million.
Clinton delivered six paid speeches in 2015, including one to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
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