Trump’s 2005 Tax Rate Much Higher Than Normal…Even for the Very, Very Wealthy

The tax forms made public Tuesday night showed that Donald Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on reported income of $150 million in 2005. That would give him an effective tax rate of around 25 percent–far above the rates most very wealthy people paid in the same year.

The average effective income tax rate for all U.S. households in 2005 was just 8.8 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center.  That means Trump’s tax rate was nearly triple that of the average American household.

Of course, Trump was no average tax-payer. His income put him well into the top 1 percent of earners in 2005, even after allowances for past losses. But even among top earners, the average rate was far lower than that paid by Trump.

The average effective rate for the top 1% of income earners in 2005 was 19.7 percent, several points lower than the 25% rate Trump appears to have paid, according to the Tax Policy Center. In other words, the tax return shows that Trump was one of the top tax payers back in 2005.