President Donald Trump’s tax returns were perpetually sought and never fully published during the 2016 presidential campaign — and that hasn’t changed. But on Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shared Trump’s 2005 1040 form, which was anonymously mailed to reporter David Cay Johnston.
Watch Rachel Maddow reveal part of President Trump’s tax returns
Libby Nelson was Vox’s editorial director, politics and policy, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.
The return reveals that in 2005, Trump paid a cumulative $38 million in taxes on $150 million in income, an effective tax rate of about 25 percent. Most of that came from the alternative minimum tax, which applies to wealthy households that have taken a lot of tax deductions.
The two-page document, which Maddow introduced with significant speculation about what the president’s full tax returns might contain, doesn’t answer all the questions Trump’s more recent full returns might reveal, such as where the president’s debts are owed or all the sources of his income. Nor does it include all of Trump’s itemized deductions, which would include things like his charitable donations.
Watch Maddow’s segment featuring the return itself:
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