



Warren Buffett responded Monday to Donald Trump's attacks on his tax payments, offering income tax information and criticizing the Republican presidential nominee for not releasing his own tax records.

In Sunday night's presidential debate in St. Louis, Trump claimed that Buffett took a "massive deduction" while defending his claimed $916 million loss in 1995 that allowed him to avoid federal income tax in at least some years. Buffett, a supporter of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, said Monday that Trump "has not seen my income tax returns."

"I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13. (Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.) I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward," Buffett said in a statement.

Trump has gone against recent presidential nominee precedent in not releasing tax returns, claiming he cannot because he is under audit. His election rival Clinton and other critics have contended he refuses to do so because the returns would expose use of tax loopholes, potential conflicts of interest in his business dealings or fewer charitable contributions than he publicly claims.

Trump's 1995 return was given to The New York Times and the newspaper first reported on it.

Buffett, the billionaire CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said he is currently under audit and has "no problem in releasing (his) tax information while under audit."

"Neither would Mr. Trump — at least he would have no legal problem," Buffett said in a statement.

Buffett said that his 2015 return shows adjusted gross income of $11.56 million. He had total deductions of $5.48 million, which includes $3.47 million for allowable charitable contributions. He said he paid federal income tax of $1.85 million.

Buffett said he made $2.86 billion in charitable contributions for the year. More than $2.85 billion was not taken as deductions.