TAX BILL LEAKED
tradition among presidential candidates of all political parties.
The leak — a summary of one year’s filing from more than a decade ago — is a small, but tantalising glimpse into the mogul’s tax history.
The White House confirmed the details just before David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, and MSNBC said they would reveal the short filing.
The snapshot was broadly favourable to the White House and appeared to back up Trump’s claim that he paid his fair share of taxes.
But the 2005 return showed amounts owed but, crucially, not sources of income that would confirm or repudiate questions about Trump’s business ties.
“The documents show Trump and his wife, Melania, paying US$5.3 million in regular federal income tax — a rate of less than four per cent,” Johnston wrote in a post on the Daily Beast.
“However, the Trumps paid an additional US$31 million in the so-called ‘alternative minimum tax’, or AMT.”
AMT was originally designed to prevent rich taxpayers from using excessive loopholes, and Trump has previously called for its elimination.
Appearing on MSNBC with centre-left commentator Rachel Maddow, Johnston said he did not know the source of the leak, noting that the return was placed in his mailbox.
“Let me point out it’s entirely possible Donald sent this to me,” he said.
“Donald has a long history of leaking material about himself when he thinks it’s in his interests.”
Trump’s overall tax rate was around 25 per cent on earnings of over US$150 million. AFP