Trump’s 2005 tax showed by TV report

Donald Trump earned more than $150 million in the year 2005 and paid just a small percentage of that in regular federal income taxes. The documents show Trump and his wife Melania paying $5.3 million in regular federal income tax, a rate of less than 4%. Trump made a total income of $253 million in 2005, but wrote off $103 million in losses, according to the document, the first two pages of which were obtained by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston and first shared on “The Rachel Maddow Show.

That's an effective federal tax rate of 24.2% in 2005, compared with 13.5% paid by Bernie Sanders in 2014 and 14.1% by Mitt Romney in 2011, according to statements they have released during their presidential campaigns.

However, the Trumps paid an additional $31 million in the “alternative minimum tax,” or AMT. Trump has previously called for the elimination of this tax.

Maddow said she believed this was the first time Trump's federal tax returns had been obtained by the media. But soon after Maddow's announcement that her show would be covering the returns, the White House preempted her with its own Trump tax revelation.

“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,” the White House said in a statement. “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.”

In their first general-election debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton speculated about Trump, “maybe he doesn’t want the American people — all of you watching tonight — to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes.” At that, Trump quipped, “That makes me smart.”

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, tweeted, “Thank you Rachel Maddow for proving to your #Trump hating followers how successful @realDonaldTrump is & that he paid $40mm in taxes! #Taxes”.