U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Friday released her 2015 tax returns and stepped up pressure on her Republican opponent Donald Trump to make his tax returns public.
Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, paid an effective federal income tax rate of 34.2 percent and an effective state and local income tax rate of 9 percent in 2015, with a total income of about 10.7 million U.S. dollars, according to her campaign.
They donated 9.8 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity, mostly to the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton's campaign also released a list of 41 speeches that she delivered in 2013, with speaking fees ranging from 225,000 dollars to 400,000 dollars. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton delivered 43 speeches that same year, with speaking fees ranging from 100,000 dollars to 750,000 dollars.
Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine and his wife Anne Holton released 10 years of their tax returns, which showed that they paid an effective federal income tax rate of 20.3 percent and an effective state and local income tax rate of 5.4 percent in 2015, with a total income of about 313,000 dollars.
"Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set the standard for financial transparency," Clinton campaign communication director Jennifer Palmieri said Friday. "In stark contrast, Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns."
Trump has claimed that he cannot release tax returns because he is being audited. But legendary investor and billionaire Warren Buffett earlier this month challenged the Republican presidential nominee to discuss their tax returns publicly.
"There are no rules against showing your tax returns and just let people ask us questions about the items that are on there," said Buffett. "You're only afraid if you've got something to be afraid of."
However, the disclosure of Clinton's wealth, mainly coming from highly-paid speeches delivered to financial institutions, might also raise concerns about whether she could really defend interests of middle-class families and take a tough stance against Wall Street as she has promised.
