Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has released her 2015 personal tax return, as well as that of running mate Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, who additionally released 10 years of their returns.  The figures show Hillary and Bill Clinton earned nearly $11m in 2015, and paid a total of 43.2% tax.  Related: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine release tax returns – campaign live  “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 and Kaine releases 10 years of his returns,” campaign communications director Jenn Palmieri 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 continued. “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, Clinton’s Republican opponent, has steadfastly refused to release any of his personal tax information, citing legal advice from Trump Organization counsel not to publicly disclose his tax returns before the completion of an audit.  In 2015, the Clintons paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34.2% on an adjusted gross income of $10,594,529. Adding an effective state and local income tax rate of 9.0%, the couple’s total tax rate was 43.2%. The Clintons donated $1,042,000, or 9.8%, of their adjusted gross income to charity.  Kaine and Holton had an adjusted gross income of $313,441 and paid a total of 25.6% in tax. The Clinton campaign released a table showing the effective tax rates paid by Kaine and Holton since 2006, although they did not release one for the Clintons:  Presidential candidates are not legally required to release their tax returns, although the practice has been the norm for more than four decades.  Trump’s critics have speculated that the real estate tycoon is hiding his tax returns because they may reveal that he has vastly overstated his personal wealth, has unsavory business ties with the Russians, or may be stingy with charitable donations – or some combination thereof. 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.  There are no laws prohibiting tax returns under audit from being released. Richard Nixon released his own taxes under audit in 1973, in part because of accusations of tax-dodging that eventually forced the disgraced former president to pay the IRS $476,431 in back taxes.  When asked about his taxes at the time, Nixon willingly released the returns that had been under audit: “I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.”
Clinton campaign uses occasion to once more question Donald Trump’s refusal to release his records, standard practice for presidential nominees for decades