Maddow pulls a Geraldo

Man, the Democrats continue to fail. Turns out Trump pays more in taxes than Obama, Romney and Sanders. Why doesn't Socialist Sanders pay his fair share?
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/324059-maddows-flub-is-a-win-for-trump

Percentagewise?

Yes.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...p-made-150-million-paid-25-effective-tax-rate

No, not really. He used the questionable 900 million 'loss' from 1996 in that calculation. Your Zero Hedge source ignores this completely.

Note that I wouldn't dream to criticise the man for that -- the law is what it is at that time, and using it is fair. But it still means that by acting fully within the law and within his rights, he paid a much smaller effective percentage than Sanders.

That shit was hilarious.

How could they be so stupid and run with this? He literally paid more in taxes in 2005 than most people do in their entire lifetime. It doesn't matter what the other tax return years at this point say. Everyone is laughing/mad at Maddow.

They are so desperate to put a stake in his administrations heart that they don't take time to look at what they have in their hands. They should have realized this was a big nothing story.

There are now allegations that Trump leaked it. Don't know if it is true but if he did than he's fucking brilliant. He trolled the shit out of Rachael and she made herself look like a damn fool.

For 2005 he paid an effective tax rate of 24%.

You don't get to decide to only count part of his total tax return as an effective percentage.

For 2005 he paid $38 million in taxes on $158 million income.

That's 24%. That's his effective percentage.

(Other years of course may be different)

This reminds me of when Harry Reid said Romney didn't pay taxes which of course turned out to be a lie. You didn't see Maddow bring that up. What's even more hilarious is how all the other hosts are patting her on the back. What a bunch of morons. This is why they get called fake news.

It was the Alternative Minimum Tax (which he wants to get rid of) that got him. If it hadn't have been for that, he would have only paid a little over $5 million.

But yeah. This was a bunch of hoopla about no big deal.

Irrelevant.

His effective tax rate for 2005 was 24%.

He paid 24% of his income to the government as taxes. Doesn't matter under what part of the tax laws it was paid but it was paid.

I get that. The AMT did what it was designed to do.

Like I said. A whole lot of gas, but no poop.

His actual income was around 250 million.

Again, all of this is fine. He made lots of money and he used the existing tax code to minimise his taxes just as anyone would. Only claiming that he paid a higher percentage than Sanders is plain false.

It's not false though we do need to see Sanders 2005 return for a better comparison.

Trump paid 24% of his income in taxes for 2005.

You don't get to pick and choose what part of his taxes he paid is counted as the "percentage"

You don't seem to understand the issue. I'm not counting only part of the taxes he paid, you are only counting part of the income he made. 38 divided by 250 is 15.2%, not 24%.

People who defend Trump's not paying his taxes crack me up. It's like they don't understand taxes at all.

1) they bitch cuz their taxes are high
2) it's okay if Trump doesn't pay his taxes, he did it legally
3) those bills still need to get paid. If Trump doesn't pay his share, guess who has to ante up?
4) they bitch cuz their taxes are high

Idiots.

It was a two page summary of his 2005 return. He was hit by the AMT and ended up paying about 30% but without the AMT (which he wants to eliminate) he would have paid about 3%. A savings of 27 base points.

It is worth noting that his big loses appeared after 2005 and that he probably did not pay any net taxes between 2006-2016. Also, it had been claimed Trump strategically leaked his 12 year old return (and only a summary) to avoid having to release the damning ones where he did not pay any taxes.

Methinks Rachel Maddow just managed to kill the Trump Income Tax Return drama.

"We've finally gotten a hold of his tax returns and...it turns out he paid a shitload of taxes."

The thing to do is change the tax code. You can't expect anyone to pay additional tax beyond their legal obligation. That's what charities are for.

Beware any attempt to "reform" the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) because that will result in the top 0.1% getting almost completely out of paying ANY taxes.

Guess which tax Republicans and Trump want to eliminate?

Playing shell games?

His income after it was all said in done for tax purposes was $158 million.

We don't pay taxes on gross income. It's paid on net income after all the deduction and other items involved are completed.

That's not what the media is reporting.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-14-21-34-53

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes in 2005, paying a roughly 25 percent effective tax rate thanks to a tax he has since sought to eliminate, according to newly disclosed tax documents.

You will also notice Trump's leak strategically left out any charitable contributions. Yep, there is probably a reason he is hiding that and why he only leaked stuff from 12 years ago.

Leaving you with a meaningless number. That's not what anyone means when they ask whether Trump or Sanders paid more taxes, percentage-wise.

Good luck getting traction on that now.

If we're down to quibbling over what Trump's effective tax rate is, it's not much of an issue. Audiences heard: Trump paid $38 million.

FTFY. Oh, and you wish.

Yes, and only the easily fooled dimwitted ones stop with one return that is over a decade old. This will work as a talking point for his fanboys, but little else.

So wait. Did he pay 24% of his "taxable income" (which is what I paid in 2016) or 24% of his adjusted gross income (which is what tax programs use to calculate your "effective tax rate.").

In 2005 and probably has not paid any since. Why did he leak only 2005? Because that is how far back he had to go to show a decent amount of taxes paid.

So, my younger son, who will be a whopping 13 years old tomorrow, has been banned on a subreddit forum for pointing out errors in the meme showing Trump paying 24% and Sanders paying 13%.

I couldn't be prouder.

How do you know he leaked it?

Keep pushing that.