Pressuring Trump, Clinton Releases 2015 Tax Returns

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton earned $10.7 million past year, according to a tax filing released by her campaign Friday that sought to pressure Republican rival Donald Trump to disclose his tax returns. Today’s release gave the Clinton camp another avenue to pounce.

And Bill Clinton’s consulting business brought in almost $1.7 million.

Clearly, it is Hillary Clinton who has already proven to be reckless when it comes to national security, placing her own personal interests ahead of those of her country.

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. The campaign site added that the Clinton’s donated 9.8% of their adjusted gross income to charity. In a statement accompanying the release, Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri noted that this release stands “in stark contrast” to Trump’s refusal to release his tax filings, as has been standard procedure for decades.

It is customary for US presidential candidates to make their tax returns public, although they are not required by law to do so.

But the billionaire Trump has declined to release his, arguing that his tax returns for the past several years are being audited.

Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, has yet to say if he will release his taxes, which he has not done as governor of Indiana.

With Hillary Clinton’s release of her 2015 tax return and the lack of any evident skeletons, Trump will be under even greater pressure to respond in kind.

The bulk of the Clintons’ income came from Bill Clinton’s speeches-he was paid $5.2 million in speaking fees in 2015. They made $21,290 in tax-deductible charitable donations a year ago. Laureate Education paid him $1 million in 2015, for a total of $17.4 million since 2010, when Laureate’s chairman first engaged him. Clinton resigned his position past year. He did so for the previous 29 years, according to the Washington Post.

In other income, Bill Clinton drew $226,297 in pensions as former president and former governor of Arkansas. Their main investment was a low-priced index mutual fund, and the Clintons reported dividend and interest income of $109,000. Their only Wall Street investment was a Vanguard 500 index fund.

Over the course of the past 10 years, the couple has donated 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity, the campaign said.

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine released a bevy of tax returns Friday – documents that provide insight into the wealth and tax rates of the Democratic presidential ticket. Their 2015 adjusted gross income was $313,441, based nearly entirely on their salaries – his as a US senator from Virginia and hers as the state’s secretary of education. Trump’s tax rate itself has been posited as a possible reason for the campaign’s reticence; the New York Times today floated the possibility that Trump may have paid zero federal income tax in some years. Their average federal tax rate for the past 10 years was 18 percent.

Clinton has sought to keep up the pressure on Trump over the issue for months.