The White House said in a statement Tuesday that President Donald Trump had paid $38 million in taxes on income of more than $150 million for 2005.
That revelation came in response to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston reportedly obtaining documents from Trump's 2005 federal tax returns, and exclusively sharing those findings Tuesday evening with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Maddow's show echoed the White House statement, saying that Trump had paid $38 million in taxes that year, and that he had taken a large write-down of $103 million. In total, Trump made more than $150 million in income that year, according to the show.
Notably, those documents indicate that Trump's effective income tax rate was about 25 percent — much higher than former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's much-pilloried 14 percent.
Still, Trump would have paid much less for 2005 if not for the alternative minimum tax, which he has vowed to abolish.
According to Johnston, Trump's tax document had turned up in his mailbox.
Maddow said she believed this was the first time Trump's federal tax returns had been obtained by the media. But soon after Maddow's announcement that her show would be covering the returns, the White House pre-empted her with its own Trump tax revelation.
Maddow tweet: BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC. (Seriously).
Trump's tax returns have been an area of intense interest since he announced his intention to run for the presidency. Despite decades of precedent, Trump refused to reveal his tax returns, claiming that he was unable to do so because of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service.
Trump, the White House said, had a responsibility "to pay no more tax than legally required."
And in response to the impending report, the White House charged that Maddow is "desperate for ratings."
Here's a statement from a White House spokesperson:
"Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required. That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that. Despite this substantial income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns. The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans."
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of MSNBC and CNBC.