The tax returns of Hillary and Bill Clinton showed they are in the country’s top 1% with a 2015 adjusted gross income of $10.6 million.
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“Here’s a pretty incredible fact: There is a non-zero chance that Donald Trump isn’t paying *any* taxes”, Clinton tweeted, just minutes after releasing her own returns.
The tax returns show Bill made $5,250,000 from his speaking agency, the Harry Walker Agency and $1,098,075 from the controversial education group Laureate Education.
The Clintons’ prior tax returns showed that from 2007 through 2014, the couple made $139.1 million – much of it from paid speeches. This is the limited liability company incorporated in DE in 2013 after she left the State Department to receive her speaking fees and book royalties.
Clinton has been highly critical of Trump for his failure to disclose personal financial information, hinting it is because he does not pay a very high percentage of his income in taxes and that he may not be as wealthy as he says he is.
Jimmy Carter released his returns in 1976; incumbent President Gerald Ford released a summary.
Departing from 40 years of tradition for presidential candidates, Trump has so far refused to release any of his tax returns for public inspection.
“Your move”, Clinton campaign aide Ian Sams said on Twitter, linking to the Democratic nominee’s returns. Nearly all of those donations went to the Clinton Family Foundation, a fund that serves as the vehicle for the couple’s charitable giving that is different from the Clinton Foundation, whose activities have been heavily scrutinised – most recently over email leaks that suggest an appropriately close connection between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department during the time Mrs Clinton was Secretary of State.
It may be easier for the Clintons to release the details of their finances than it would be for Trump to release his, since almost all of their income is from book sales and speech fees, both of which Hillary Clinton has already made public in her filings with the Federal Elections Commission. They paid 3.6 million U.S. dollars in federal income tax, according to the document, which was posted on her campaign website.
In 2015, the Clinton’s paid $3.24 million in federal income taxes, amounting to effective tax rate as 34%, according to the Clinton campaign.
The IRS has said Mr Trump is free to release his returns.
Over the course of their careers the Clintons have published all of their tax returns since 1977.
Clinton’s strategy borrows from President Barack Obama’s winning playbook against Mitt Romney in 2012.
He noted that Trump had visited key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida repeatedly and was “starting to get traction in those states”.
Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman, also pushed back against the media during an appearance Sunday on CNN.
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“The media chose to take her, Clinton – the Clinton campaign narrative – and go on attack on Donald Trump”, Manafort said.
