President’s tax return leak shows he earned £123million

‘He would’ve paid less than poorest’

DONALD Trump’s leaked tax returns show he would have paid virtually no income tax if not for a toll on the rich which he has vowed to abolish.

The US president’s 2005 return shows he and wife Melania earned more than £123million ($150m). But they wrote off £86million ($105m) of that as business losses and eventually paid £31million ($38m) in federal and other taxes.

Some 82 per cent of it was due to the ‘alternative minimum tax’ (AMT), introduced to stop wealthy Americans writing off huge sums via tax loopholes.

Mr Trump had refused to publish his returns, and reacted angrily yesterday after investigative reporter David Cay Johnston said the papers were anonymously posted to him.

He had suggested that Mr Trump may have himself leaked the papers marked ‘client copy’ – and may have represented a high-paying tax year for the president, adding: ‘If we didn’t have the alternative minimum tax he would have paid tax at a lower tax rate than the poorest people in this country.’

Mr Trump tweeted it was ‘fake news’ even though hours earlier the White House had effectively conceded the documents were authentic.

It had said: ‘Before being elected president, Mr Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world, with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required.’ And it described the business losses which let Mr Trump write off so much that year as ‘large-scale depreciation for construction’.

US interest rates were raised last night for the second time since Mr Trump won the election. The Federal Reserve put up rates by 0.25 percentage points to between 0.75 per cent and 1 per cent.