Updated March 15, 2017 12:40:15
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has revealed US President Donald Trump's 2005 tax returns on live television.
The documents showed Mr Trump's 2005 income to be more than $US150 million.
Maddow said the billionaire had paid $US38 million in tax, but had a "big write-down" of $103 million that year.
The figures were consistent with those released by the White House minutes before the interview.
In a statement, the White House said Mr Trump, as head of the Trump Organisation, had a responsibility "to pay no more tax than legally required".
Maddow released the details in a broadcast beginning at 12:00pm AEDT.
She said she had received the documents from investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, who had the returns delivered to his letter box.
In the broadcast, Johnston suggested Donald Trump could have leaked the documents himself, adding the businessman had a long history of leaking information to the media.
Johnston suggested it may even have been Mr Trump who leaked a racy photoshoot of his wife Melania and another woman to the New York Post in the lead-up to the election.
Prior to the broadcast, the White House said publishing Mr Trumps' returns would be illegal.
"You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago," a statement read.
The White House added it was "totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns" and bashed the "dishonest media".
Trump refused to release tax returns due to IRS audit
Mr Trump faced mounting pressure to release his tax returns in the lead-up to last year's November election, but refused to do so, saying his taxes were under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.
Former Republican nominee Mitt Romney in May said Mr Trump's refusal to release his tax returns should disqualify him from the presidential race.
At the time, Mr Romney said the only explanation for Mr Trump's refusal to release his records was that they contained "a bombshell of unusual size".
In October, the New York Times reported Mr Trump had declared a $US916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns.
The loss would have allowed Mr Trump to cancel out the equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period, experts hired by the newspaper to analyse the records said.
Mr Trump's advisors hit back, saying the write-off showed his business "genius".
"He would have been fool not to take advantage of it," former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said at the time.
Reuters
First posted March 15, 2017 11:47:19
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