Leaked Trump filings reported to show 25% tax rate in 2005

Donald Trump paid $38m in taxes on $150m in income in 2005, according to tax filings obtained by MSNBC and a statement from the White House.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said the documents had appeared in the post box of Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston. The figures reported by Ms Maddow and Mr Johnston on his personal site would indicate a tax rate of just over 25 per cent – lower than the top US tax bracket of 40 per cent.

That rate is above the 15 per cent paid by previous Republican party presidential candidate Mitt Romney. When Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton asserted during a September debate that Mr Trump paid no taxes in some years, Mr Trump responded: “That makes me smart.”

Mr Trump was the first major presidential candidate to not release his tax returns since 1976.

Ahead of the scheduled broadcast, the White House on Tuesday evening released a statement revealing the same figures. The statement also criticised the Rachel Maddow Show calling it “desperate for ratings when you are willing to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago”.

It added:

The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans.

Below the headline figures, Mr Trump and his wife Melania paid $5.3m in in federal income tax as well as $31m in alternative minimum tax in 2005, according to the documents.

Alternative minimum tax is defined by the US Internal Revenue Service as applying “to taxpayers with high economic income by setting a limit on [tax] benefits. It helps to ensure that those taxpayers pay at least a minimum amount of tax.”

Mr Trump has previously promised to repeal the alternative minimum tax.