Warren Buffett attacks Trump over his tax returns
In response to Trump's attacks that Buffett takes advantage of tax loopholes to avoid taxes, Buffett released a statement outlining his tax payments and deductions from the last year. In addition, Buffett hit Trump for not releasing his own tax returns, which may have shown that Trump avoided paying federal taxes for years.
"Mr. Trump says he knows more about taxes than any other human," wrote Buffett in a statement. "He has not seen my income tax returns. But I am happy to give him the facts."
Buffett, who is supporting Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton, said he paid $1,845,557 in federal income tac for 2015 on a gross income of $11,563,931. Buffett also said he took $5,447,694 in deductions of which just under $3.5 million were for charitable donations.
Buffett said that he gave $2.85 billion to charity last year but only took a deduction of $3.5 million due to laws that "properly limits" charitable donations according to Buffett.
Buffett also hit Trump on not releasing his own income tax returns, which every presidential nominee has done since the 1970s. Trump claimed that part of the reason he was not releasing his returns was due to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit.
"Finally, I have been audited by the IRS multiple times and am currently being audited," said Buffett in the statement. "I have no problem releasing my tax information under audit. Neither would Mr. Trump - at least he would have no legal problem."