Hillary Clinton Tax Return: Paid $3.24 Million In 2015, Donald Trump Paid Zero Dollars?
Hillary Clinton has finally released her latest federal income tax returns and showed that along with her husband and former U.S. President Bill, they made nearly $28 million in 2015. The stats revealed that the Clintons have paid $3.24 million. Now, it is Donald Trump’s chance to finally release his own tax returns.
According to CNN Money, the campaign of pragmatist nominee of the Democratic Party for the President of the United States reported that the Clintons’ effected tax rate as 34 percent that includes more than $300,000 the couple paid in self-employment taxes, which are payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.
From where exactly did the Clintons earn this much money?
Salary:
Neither Hillary nor Bill take their salary from the Clinton Foundation, the power couple received a salary or pension from other sources since 2000. As reported by Money Nation, Hillary has received a yearly salary while she was the senator from New York. Her final salary while serving in the Senate was around $169,000, and while she served as secretary of the state she received $186,000.
Apart from Hillary, even her husband earns a considerable amount of funds from his annual pension that comes in around $200,000 per year.
Both husband and wife have been on the receiving end of some big paydays for their memoirs. When Hillary was serving as secretary of state, she did not earn much from her books, but the moment she left her position, she began making millions.
According to NY Times, even Bill received a record book deal at the time when he signed an agreement to produce a transcript. Released in 2004, the former president earned over $15 million just in advance.
Speaking Fees:
As earlier reported by CNN, the Clintons have raked in $153 million for their speaking fees. They have a combined 729 speeches from 2001 until mid-2015 and has received an average payday of $210,00 for each speech.
With the recent release of income tax, the Clintons have now released 39 years’ worth of returns over the course of their political careers.
After releasing her income proof and tax returns, she now has an upper hand over Trump, who is yet to disclose his returns.
According to a report published in the New York Times, it is now being speculated that the businessman and Republican Party nominee has paid zero dollars in taxes.
A veteran tax lawyer, Steven M. Rosenthal, stated that it is both possible and legal that Trump has paid no tax.
“I would expect he’s paying little or no tax,” Rosenthal said, according to the report. “Real estate is notorious for throwing off huge deductions.”
According to PoliticusUSA, Trump even got irritated when the question of his income was asked to him many a times.
“It’s none of your business. You’ll see it when I release, but I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”
“One of the reasons is because the government takes your money and wastes it in the Middle East and all over the place.”
He has further claimed that the reason why he is not disclosing his tax returns is just because he is under audit and said he would release when the auditing will be over by the finance team.
If he will not release income proof and returns, then he is going to break a 40-year bipartisan tradition of transparency that is expected from all the presidential nominees.
Do you think that after releasing her tax returns, Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the November election have increased exponentially? And do you think that Donald Trump will ever release his returns? Tell us in the comments below.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
