The Hillary Clinton campaign on Friday released her 2015 tax return, which showed that the Democratic nominee and her husband paid a 34.2-percent effective federal tax rate and donated almost 10 percent of their gross income to charity.
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Clinton had also previously supported the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by former President Bill Clinton, her husband, and which Trump routinely disparages as bad for American jobs.
Clinton’s running mate, US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with his wife, Anne Holton, paid a federal effective tax rate of 20.3 per cent in 2015, the campaign said.
Hillary Clinton has released her tax return while criticising her opponent Donald Trump for failing to honour this tradition among American politicians running for president.
The Clinton campaign used this disclosure of money earned and taxes paid to ask her political rival, NY magnate Donald Trump, to release his income tax returns, something he has repeatedly refused to do on grounds that they are under federal audit, something the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, says shouldn’t be a problem.
Straying from his trademark bravado, Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that his presidential campaign is facing challenges and could ultimately fall short – a rare expression of humility by the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump has said that he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service and will therefore not release his returns. “When he wants to scrap regulations that stop polluters from poisoning the air our children breathe and the water we drink”, Clinton said, three days after Trump laid out his economic vision for the country in which he announced a number of tax incentive for the middle class and common people.
The IRS has said Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit.
The Republican and Democratic candidates in the last nine presidential elections – since Ronald Reagan in 1980 – have released tax returns at least for the previous year, according to Politifact.
Most of the income came from Clinton’s speaking fees as Hillary has been campaigning for president. Hillary earned about $3m from book royalties.
In 2012, then-Republican presidential Mitt Romney reluctantly released his returns.
Clinton’s campaign has released tax returns going back to 2007. She put out her most recent eight years of tax filings last summer along with her health records.
The power couple reported earning $10.7 million in income in 2015, and claimed a tax liability of $3.6 million.
Trump called for abolishing the estate tax, paid by only 0.2 percent of all estates, those worth more than those worth more than $5.4 million for individuals and $10.8 million for couples. Trump’s tax rate itself has been posited as a possible reason for the campaign’s reticence; the New York Times today floated the possibility that Trump may have paid zero federal income tax in some years.
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Hillary Clinton is seizing opportunities presented by a volatile presidential race to expand her base of support heading into the fall, seeking to position the Democratic Party for a sweeping victory in November.
