Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax returns Friday, shedding light on her financial situation and putting even more pressure on her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to release his own tax returns.
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USA presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has released her tax return – and challenged Donald Trump to do likewise.
The Clinton campaign used the release of the tax returns to hit Donald Trump for failing to release his own.
Mr Trump said this week he wants to cut taxes for businesses and workers, and go with a three-bracket income tax system that is close to what House Republicans have recommended.
The Clintons’ federal taxes in 2015 amounted to 34.2 percent of their income, and their combined federal, state and local taxes were 43.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump insisted he was not serious when he said repeatedly this week that President Barack Obama was the founder of the Islamic State group.
The Clintons’ 2015 return showed that, unlike most Americans, just $100 of their income came from wages.
The IRS has said there is no timetable for when the audit of Trump’s complicated tax returns will be completed, though there is no law stating Trump could not release the returns as filed while the audit continues.
The Democratic candidate asked voters which choice for president they believe can create jobs, restore fairness to the economy, be sure those at the top pay what they owe and who can bring in people to “deliver the results that will make a difference in your lives”.
In recent months, news organisations have unearthed public records that give a glimpse of what Trump paid in income taxes for eight out of the last 41 years. “There’s nothing to learn from them”, he said. Clinton has pounced on this in the past, suggesting that Trump is not trustworthy – a criticism that many on the right have level against her.
The Clintons’ tax documents depict a high-powered, high-income couple earning millions from speaking and consulting fees.
The couple is nowhere as rich as the Republican nominee, but they’re much more transparent about their finances.
The disclosures underscore the extent to which Clinton’s wealth dwarfs that of the working families whose interests she is promising to champion, as recently as in a speech in the Detroit area on Thursday in which she accused Trump of being interested in helping “only millionaires like himself”.
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These revealed that his effective federal tax rate varied significantly from year to year: just 13.4 percent in 2009, the last full year he was governor of Virginia and peaking at 24 percent in 2011, when he concluded his stint as Democratic National Committee chair.
