The Republican National Committee sent a letter to Hillary Clinton’s accountant on tax day calling for the Democratic candidate to pay the millions of dollars she would owe the IRS since 2001 under her proposed "surcharge" on top earners.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Clinton "hypocritical" for proposing an "unprecedented" tax on Americans in the top .01 percent, which includes herself and her husband, and not paying the additional taxes to demonstrate her commitment to her own tax plan.
"I am writing to you on this annual tax day to inquire as to whether Hillary Clinton has chosen to put her money where her mouth is, and pay the additional taxes she is hypocritically proposing that other Americans of similar income pay, but not said she is willing to voluntarily pay herself," Priebus wrote to Rorrie Gregorio, Clinton’s accountant, in a letter released by the RNC on Monday.
Clinton has proposed that Americans who earn more than $5 million in annual income be slapped with a 4 percent "surcharge," which would result in the highest top U.S. income tax rate since 1986.
The Clintons have earned more than $186.6 million in taxable income since leaving the White House at the beginning of 2001, Priebus noted in the letter. The couple earned over $22.7 million alone in 2014, the same year that Hillary Clinton claimed to have been "dead broke" when her husband’s term as president ended.
"With the Clintons’ tremendous income, I am calling upon them to fully embrace her new tax by applying the ‘surcharge’ to her family’s previous income since 2001 when her family income has been in excess of $10 million on average annually," Priebus wrote.
If they applied the surcharge, the Clintons would owe the IRS over $711,000 for the income they earned in 2014, their highest single year of taxable income. They would owe the IRS approximately $4.7 million if they paid the surcharge on all of their reported income since 2001.
"Clinton should practice what she preaches by sending the U.S. Treasury the over $4.6 million she would have owed under her new tax," Priebus wrote. "In addition, it is imperative that the Clintons continue to lead moving forward, and pay this 4-percent ‘surcharge’ tax on their 2015 federal income tax filings and each year moving forward."
The RNC also hit the Clintons for "improperly" taking advantage of the U.S. tax code.
"Mrs. Clinton has a particular obligation to honor her tax agenda considering her and her husband’s past and current use of the tax code," Priebus wrote.
"Whether it was the improper use of interest deductions on their Whitewater real estate loans, or their current use of real estate loopholes to avoid fully paying the estate tax, another tax she seeks to raise, the Clintons can no longer hide their hypocritical penchant for gaming the tax system."