Deccan Chronicle

Trump earned $153m, paid $36.5m in taxes

White House releases 2005 tax returns after it was leaked

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Washington, March 15: President Donald Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income in 2005, the White House announced on Wednesday, in a move to pre-empt a leak on this issue by one of the popular television shows.

The White House released details of Mr Trump’s income and tax returns after a US television host presented what she said was part of the property mogul’s tax forms from 2005.

It was unclear who was behind the apparent leak. The White House released a strongly-worded statement condemning the “illegal” action. “Despite this substantia­l income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns,” the White House said.

“The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans,” it added.

“You know you are desperate for rating when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” the statement read.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said the document was mailed to David Cay Johnson, a Pulitzer prize winning reporters who now runs DCreport.org. Appearing on Ms Maddow’s show, Mr Johnston said he did not know who sent him the excerpts from Mr Trump’s 2005 return, which appeared in his mailbox.

Mr Trump was the first major presidenti­al candidate in decades not to release his tax returns. He had said that he would release it when the regular audit is complete.

Democrats and some Republican­s have spent months calling for the tax returns to be released, arguing that they could show whether his global business empire posed a conflicts of interest.

Thousands of people have signed a petition demanding that the President immediatel­y release his tax returns.

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