Watch Rachel Maddow Release Part Of Donald Trump's Tax Returns For The First Time
On Tuesday evening, Rachel Maddow announced she'd be releasing part of Donald Trump's 2005 federal tax return on her show. Soon after, The Daily Beast and DCReport reported on the details of the 1040 form.
Rachel Maddow along with The Daily Beast revealed that Trump paid 4% of his income in regular income tax, and the majority of his taxes through AMT, which brought his total tax rate to 25%.
Donald Trump earned more than $150 million in the year 2005…The documents show Trump and his wife Melania paying $5.3 million in regular federal income tax—a rate of less than 4% However, the Trumps paid an additional $31 million in the so-called "alternative minimum tax," or AMT.
The Daily Beast also reveals Trump benefited from losses he claimed in 1995, that were first reported on in The New York Times in October. Trump claimed $100 million loss in the 2005 returns:
Trump's 2005 return also shows that he'd continued to benefit from the roughly $916 million loss he reported in his 1995 return — published last year by The New York Times. Using a loophole Congress closed in 1996, Trump converted that loss into a tax credit for the same amount he could offset against income.
The Daily Beast and Rachel Maddow were provided the two pages of Trump's tax returns by David Cay Johnston, an award-winning financial journalist who says he received the returns in the mail.
Last October, The New York Times obtained tax documents showing Trump claiming a $916 million loss in 1995 on his state tax returns. The loss could have theoretically allowed Trump to avoid paying income tax for 18 years. You can review everything that's known about Donald Trump's tax history here.
Throughout Donald Trump's campaign and into his presidency, he has refused to disclose his tax returns because he claimed it would conflict with an audit.
The White House pre-emptively responded to Maddow's report with a brief statement:
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. That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that.
Wednesday morning, Donald Trump was seemingly angry about the release, tweeting "Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, "went to his mailbox" and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!" Donald Trump Jr., however, made 26 tweets or retweets celebrating the release — writing "BREAKING NEWS: 12 years ago @realDonaldTrump made a lot of money and paid a lot in taxes #scandal #thankyouMaddow".
You can watch Maddow's reveal below:
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