--- title: Hillary Clinton Mocks Donald Trump With 'Tax Calculator' description: How much would you pay in taxes if you were Donald Trump? canonical: https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-02T19:09:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:32.843Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton's New Trump 'Tax Calculator' Has a Predictable Punch Line og:description: How much would you pay in taxes if you were Donald Trump? og:url: https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07e71c69979817f5/6988a79d97cdff7f7e6adeeb/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL First Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton's New Trump 'Tax Calculator' Has a Predictable Punch Line twitter:description: How much would you pay in taxes if you were Donald Trump? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07e71c69979817f5/6988a79d97cdff7f7e6adeeb/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton's New Donald Trump 'Tax Calculator' Has a Predictable Punch Line > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 2, 2016 7:09 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the presidential debate with Donald Trump at Hofstra University on Sept. 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the presidential debate with Donald Trump at Hofstra University on Sept. 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York. Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 2, 2016 7:09 PM UTC Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a “[tax calculator”](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/page/trump-taxes/) Sunday meant to mock Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The “Trump ‘smart’ tax calculator” is billed as being designed to ” calculate how much you would pay in taxes if you paid the same as Donald Trump,” but really it’s a gag to call attention to the [New York _Times_ report](http://time.com/4515840/donald-trump-tax-records-loss/?xid=homepage) that the businessman could have avoided paying federal income tax for up to 18 years after an income loss of $916 million in 1995. Type in any salary on the “calculator” and you’ll get the same [$0 tax bill](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/page/trump-taxes/). “Donald Trump says it’s because he’s smart. The New York Times says it’s because he lost almost a billion dollars,” the website reads. The Clinton campaign has been [gloating](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton) since the [_Times_ published a report](http://time.com/4515840/donald-trump-tax-records-loss/?xid=homepage) that called into question whether or not Trump paid federal income tax over almost two decades. Shortly after the report, the Clinton campaign released a statement calling it a “bombshell,” and said the businessman “stiffed small businesses” and “laid off workers.” “He apparently got to avoid paying taxes for nearly two decades—while tens of millions of working families paid theirs,” Clinton [campaign manager Robby Mook](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton) said. “He calls that ‘smart.'” [Trump supporters defended the candidate’s tax record](http://time.com/4515946/donald-trump-surrogates-rudy-giuliani-chris-christie-genius-taxes/?xid=homepage)s on Sunday, saying they reveal he’s actually a “genius.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton's New Donald Trump 'Tax Calculator' Has a Predictable Punch Line","datePublished":"2016-10-02T19:09:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:32.843Z","description":"How much would you pay in taxes if you were Donald Trump?","url":"https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07e71c69979817f5/6988a79d97cdff7f7e6adeeb/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07e71c69979817f5/6988a79d97cdff7f7e6adeeb/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL First Debate","caption":"Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Face Off In First Presidential Debate At Hofstra University","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4516003/donald-trump-taxes-hillary-clinton/","name":"Hillary Clinton's New Donald Trump 'Tax Calculator' Has a Predictable Punch Line"}}]}] ```