Clinton releases 2015 tax return, prods Trump to do the same

[CPUd]

Clinton releases 2015 tax return, prods Trump to do the same

Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax return Friday, as her campaign dials up the pressure on Republican Donald Trump to do the same.

Clinton, who filed jointly with her husband, paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34.2% last year, and the Clintons donated 9.8% of their adjusted gross income to charity, according to the campaign.

The Clintons took in $10.6 million in income in 2015, a majority of which came from paid speeches by Bill Clinton, while $3 million came from book royalties.

Their 2015 income was a little more than a third of what it was the year before and about half of their haul in 2007, the last full year in which Hillary Clinton was running for president. Including state and local taxes, the pair paid an effective rate of 43.2% in taxes 2015.

Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, and his wife, Anne Holton, are also releasing 10 years of their returns showing they earned a combined $313,441 and paid a 25.6% rate, taking into account federal, state and local taxes.

Trump has repeatedly rebuffed calls to release his most recent tax returns because they are under federal audit. Yet he's also refused to release prior returns that would provide information about his income, foreign holdings as well as charitable giving.

“Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set the standard for financial transparency as she releases her 2015 personal tax return and builds on the Clintons' tradition of making their returns public since 1977,” Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Clinton campaign, said in a statement.

“In stark contrast, Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns," Palmieri added. "He has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years. What is he trying to hide?”

Trump has said “there’s nothing to learn” from his returns, and he has released a personal financial statement, which is legally required.

His campaign has said his net worth is in excess of $10 billion. Every major party nominee since the late 1970s has released tax returns before Election Day.

A year ago, Clinton released past years' returns, which showed the couple earned just over $28 million in 2014 and $27 million in 2013, more than double the $13 million they earned in 2010 when she was still serving as secretary of State.

The Clintons earned $21 million in 2007, as Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator, was running for president. Bill Clinton earned $10 million from speeches and $4 million in book sales that year, but their combined income dropped to $5.5 million in 2008.

The release coincides with a new Clinton campaign web video featuring Republicans pressuring their nominee to release his returns.

The video includes 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's primary rival.

“We will only really know if he’s a real deal or a phony if he releases his tax returns,” Romney says, suggesting that maybe Trump isn’t as rich as he claims, hasn’t paid the tax rate Americans would expect him to or hasn’t donated to veterans and other charities as he's said he has.

“For the last 30 or 40 years, every candidate for president has released their tax returns, and I think Donald Trump should, as well,” McConnell says.

“He doesn’t want to do it because presumably there’s something in there that is bad,” Cruz says.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ary-clinton-tax-returns-trump-kaine/88614790/

 

[angelatc]

Seriously, 4 million in book sales? I wonder how many of those books were purchased by the Clinton Foundation. Google "Clinton Book Sales" and the headlines at the time all say the book is bombing.

 

[AuH20]

Filtering tax free money via the Clinton Foundation? Say it ain't so....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-12/96-clinton-donations-went-clinton-foundation

 

[Zippyjuan]

Trump won't release his. He said in January he would- a "big and beautiful" return. Then he remembered (or somebody told him) that Romney lost when he released his return.

 

[angelatc]

Of course, CPU and the Hillary Rotten Clinton cheerleaders will ignore this and insist that Trump should release his. (ETA - ROTFL! Literally as I was typing this, Zippy popped in and pointed at Trump. Check the time stamps....)

But this is money laundering, pure and simple. She is so freaking untouchable she doesn't care that we know it. Unfreaking believable.

And on a side not, that $200 to the high school class of '64 probably isn't deductible. Most booster-type organizations aren't.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

There was rumor that she will release her health records too... if that is true speculation, when will those be made transparent to US voters?

 

[Zippyjuan]

Different "Foundation". Not the William and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/12/9...donations-in-2015-went-to-clinton-foundation/

(Correction: This article initially identified the Clinton non-profit that received the bulk of the Clintons’ charitable donations as the Clinton Foundation. The $1 million contribution actually went to the Clinton Family Foundation. The Clintons control the entity, but it is separate from the Clinton Foundation.)

Can't say if it is any more or less legit.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/08/06/wsj-and-bill-oreilly-conflate-two-clinton-chari/204809

As Nonprofit Quarterly explained https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/08/06/wall-street-journal-confuses-clinton-charities/ , the Clinton Family Foundation acts "a clearinghouse for the family's personal philanthropy." According to the Family Foundation's 2014 tax filing, Hillary and Bill Clinton are the only donors, and the Family Foundation distributes their money to various charities and nonprofits, including New York Public Radio, the American Nurses Foundation, the American Heart Association -- and the separate William J. Clinton Foundation.

From NonProfit Quarterly:

Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal featured an editorial about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s tax returns, released to the public on July 31st. One of the problems when a donor (or donor couple, in this case) has multiple charities bearing the family name is confusion over which charity does what. The WSJ editorial board made this mistake when it conflated the Clinton Family Foundation with the Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Foundation (officially the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is the well-publicized international public charity that has attracted corporate, government, and individual donors from around the world. NPQ has reported on various aspects of the Clinton Foundation, including a recent piece by Rick Cohen. The Clinton Family Foundation, however, is very different.

The Clinton Family Foundation, headquartered in Chappaqua, New York, is the private foundation that received all but $200,000 of the almost $14 million the Clintons gave to charity from 2007 to 2013. The Clinton Family Foundation’s Form 990-PF (private foundation) filings show that the foundation has only one donor—Bill and Hillary Clinton—and gives much of its money to local and national charities other than the Clinton Foundation, based in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas. Like many family foundations, the Clinton Family Foundation appears to act as a clearinghouse for the family’s personal philanthropy.

 

[CPUd]

Maybe they were helping Trump launder some money too? If he releases his tax returns, we could know for sure.

 

[ChristianAnarchist]

I seriously doubt Trump will release his returns because I doubt that he has the $$$ he claims to (or thinks) he has.

That said, I really don't understand why ANYONE should release tax returns to be elected to office. Tax returns (or extortion returns if we are accurate) are supposed to be private and there was a time in this country when a person's finances were well kept secrets until the goonerment got involved in extorting money from people.

Anyone want to see my tax returns?? Well foulk you, you can't...

 

[Brian4Liberty]

The Clinton return is meaningless without full disclosure on all other entities that they control.

 

[jmdrake]

Total non-story.

 

[angelatc]

The Clinton return is meaningless without full disclosure on all other entities that they control.

The CLinton Foundation only spent 10% of it's income on charity - the other 90% is administrative costs.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/27...0-percent-of-its-budget-on-charitable-grants/

 

[CPUd]

GOP chairman calls on Trump to release tax returns

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee is calling on the party's presidential nominee Donald Trump to release his tax returns and medical records.

“If you’re going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you’re going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah) told CNN on Wednesday.

“You’re just going to have to do that, it’s too important,” he continued. “So both candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, should show both their medical records and tax returns, absolutely.”

Trump has refused to release his tax returns during his presidential campaign, saying that he’s being audited by the IRS.

Clinton released her 2015 tax returns earlier this month. The Clintons have made their returns public as far back as 1977.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box...hairman-calls-on-trump-to-release-tax-returns