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A few hours before the first television match in the US presidential election campaign, Democratic challenger Joe Biden fueled controversy over incumbent Donald Trump’s finances. Biden and his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris released their 2019 tax returns on Tuesday. The Democratic campaign team asked Trump to do the same with his own return. Contrary to the conventions of American politics, the Republican has kept his documents under lock and key for years. More recently, the issue came to the fore in the election campaign after the New York Times reported that Trump had paid little to no federal tax in recent years.
The statement from Joe Biden and his wife Jill indicates that they paid more than $ 346,000 in taxes and other payments to the federal government during the past year. Therefore, their combined annual income was almost $ 985,000. The Bidens requested a refund of nearly $ 47,000, which they said would have paid too much. According to the New York Times, Trump paid no federal taxes in 10 of the 15 years through 2017. His corresponding burden in 2016 and 2017 was $ 750 each. Trump has rejected the bill, saying he has paid “many millions of dollars in taxes.” In the United States, federal and state taxes are collected separately.
Biden’s campaign team deputy director Kate Bedingfield called the release of the documents Tuesday a historic step that should restore Americans’ faith in political leadership. “Mr. President, publish your tax return or shut up,” he told reporters. Initially, a statement from Republicans was not available.
There were already irritations before the television duel. According to Biden’s campaign team, the Republican opposing side asked the moderator of the debate not to mention the number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The U.S. disease authorities, the CDC, currently put them at 204,598. Trump’s team rejected the Democrats’ claim. That was “a lie and it never happened,” a spokesman said.
