Pursuing a return to public service came at a cost to Hillary and Bill Clinton, as their considerable joint income dropped by almost two-thirds past year when the former secretary of State began her run for president.
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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 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.
The newly released tax documents show that the Clintons in 2015 paid a combined federal, state and local effective tax rate of 43.2 percent. The bulk of their income – more than $6 million – came from speaking fees for appearances made largely before Hillary Clinton launched her campaign in April 2015. “He has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years”.
Clinton is releasing the returns for two reasons: transparency and the opportunity to bash Donald Trump.
Clinton has pounced on the issue, releasing an online video on Friday highlighting high-profile Republicans urging Trump to release his taxes.
The Democratic presidential nominee didn’t talk of ending government regulation, reducing corporate taxes or throwing out trade agrements, as Trump did on Monday.
In fact, the most recent survey, by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, gave Clinton her largest lead of the campaign, 21 points.
The Trump campaign charged that Clinton has “turned over only the records nobody wants to see from her”.
Clinton has shared tax returns for every year going back to 1977. Over the past decade, he and his wife earned the most in 2014, more than $314,000 in adjusted gross income. They brought in $6.7 million from speeches, mostly his, and $3.1 million from book advances and royalties, nearly entirely hers. Of the the $1,042,000 the Clintons gave to charity as listed on their return, $1 million of that went to the Clinton Family Foundation. Nobody’s going to arrest us.,’ Buffett said, pushing back at the perception that somehow being under an audit means the documents can not be publicly seen.
When asked about his taxes at the time, Nixon willingly released the returns that had been under audit: “I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook”.
“I would be delighted to meet him anyplace, anytime between now and election day”.
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Like Donald Trump earlier this week, Hillary Clinton went to MI to convince middle-class voters that her economic plan would bring them better jobs, higher wages and an economic vitality that even eight years after the recession eludes so many. He can bring his tax return.
