Clinton Release on Taxes

Clinton Release on Taxes

Statement of Jay Carson, Clinton Campaign Spokesman

Today Senator Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton are releasing their tax returns for the years 2000 through 2006, and are providing information regarding their 2007 taxes as well.

The Clintons have now made public thirty years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service. None of Hillary Clinton’s presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.

What the Clintons’ tax returns show is that they paid more than $33,000,000 in federal taxes and donated more than $10,000,000 to charities over the past eight years. They paid taxes and made charitable contributions at a higher rate than taxpayers at their income level.

2000 - 2007 TAX RETURN SUMMARY
HILLARY & BILL CLINTON

TAXES PAID: $33,783,507

The Clintons paid $33,783,507 in federal taxes – 31% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more paid on average 20.8% of their adjusted gross income in taxes.

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: $10,256,741

The Clintons donated $10,256,741 to charity – 9.5% of their adjusted gross income. According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more contributed 3.1% of their adjusted gross income in cash contributions to charity. Information about the Clinton Family Foundation, including a list of charities to which the Clintons contributed through the Foundation, is available online in the Foundation’s publicly available tax returns (www.foundationcenter.org).

AFTER TAX EARNINGS: $57,157,297

CUMULATIVE TOTAL(GROSS) INCOME: $109,175,175

Including, among other items:
Senator Clinton’s Senate Salary: $1,051,606
President Clinton’s Presidential Pension: $1,217,250
Senator Clinton’s Book Income: $10,457,083
President Clinton’s Book Income: $29,580,525
President Clinton’s Speech Income: $51,855,599

SENATOR CLINTON’S BOOK INCOME: $10,457,083
Senator Clinton’s book income is comprised of earnings for Living History ($10,267,895), including an $8,000,000 advance, and It Takes a Village ($189,188). The earnings for It Takes a Village were donated to charity. Since the release of It Takes a Village in 1996, Senator Clinton has donated over $1,100,000 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON’S BOOK INCOME: $29,580,525
President Clinton’s book income is comprised of earnings for My Life ($23,280,525), including a $15,000,000 advance, and Giving ($6,300,000). The President donated $1,000,000 of his income from Giving in 2007 to charity.

PRESIDENT CLINTON’S SPEECH INCOME: $51,855,599

NOTE: The figures in this summary include 2007 estimates.

Last year's income

Here, from the 2007 estimate (they requested an extension) is what the Clintons made last year:

Sen. Clinton's salary $150,200
Sen. Clinton's book royalties $152,864
President Clinton's pension $186,600
President Clinton's book income $4,434,446
President Clinton's speeches $10,145,000
Partnership income $2,750,000
Adviser income from InfoUSA $400,000
Income from savings accounts $485,000
Investment income from Blind Trust $3,515,000

The partnership income appears to refer to Bill Clinton's role with Ron Burkle's investment funds.

April 04, 2008

Clinton returns: Assets and liabilities

A few notes on the Clinton tax returns, all noted by readers who have more eyes than I do.

First, a couple of things that could bite Hillary:

The returns show more than $50,000 in income (and $40,000 in losses) in 2006 from funds with the name Quellos, an asset manager accused in a scathing bipartisan 2006 Senate committee report of structuring "tax shelters."

The 2006 return also contains a foreign tax credit worth $285,368, which could be an issue in a race that has been hostile to the notion of overseas jobs — though the details of that figure (line 47 of the 1040 from 2006) aren't immediately obvious.

On the other hand:

A number of readers have e-mailed to say the Clintons' charity is ersatz, as it went to their family foundation. In fact, the foundation was giving the money away to a range of groups; you can see the foundation's 990, which has been written about before, here.

Anyway, I'll keep watching my e-mail, and keep an eye on Politico for more reporting on this from my colleagues.

Clintons Dissolve Blind Financial Trust

Millions in Stock Converted to Cash to Avoid Campaign Conflicts

By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2007; Page A01

Bill and Hillary Clinton have dissolved the blind trust that has managed their investments since they entered the White House in 1993, converting all stocks to cash to avoid financial conflicts as she runs for president, according to documents to be filed today with federal ethics officials.

The documents reviewed by The Washington Post provide the most complete accounting of how the Clintons accrued the $5 million to $25 million in the trust -- nearly all since leaving the White House -- through investments in foreign companies, oil giants and drugmakers without their input or knowledge and without public disclosure.

<...>

The couple chose instead to dissolve the trust on April 27 and to convert all their stocks to cash to avoid any questions about possible conflicts of interests, the Clintons' legal and financial advisers said. Their portfolio will be limited to cash accounts and U.S. Treasury notes, the advisers said.

In doing so, the Clintons will incur a large capital gains tax bill for 2007 and will reduce their ability to earn new money because savings accounts and certificates of deposit traditionally offer lower rates of return than Wall Street, the advisers said. In all, the Clintons have total assets of $10 million to $50 million with no substantial debts.

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Clinton Family Loan Mystery

April 05, 2008 11:19 AM

Those of us old enough to recall the 1990s can remember presidential half-brother and pardon recipient Roger Clinton, as well as presidential brothers-in-law Tony and Hugh Rodham -- all of whom were caught up in the pardon-gate controversy.

None of them has been seen much (or at all) during Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, not without good reason. I don't want to be too harsh, but let's just say they all firmly seem to fall into the Bill Carter mold of presidential siblings.

The reason I bring them up is because according to Bill and Hillary's just-released tax returns from 2000-2006, the Clintons paid interest on loans to family members every year from 2001-2006. (The Clintons applied for an extension on their 2007 filing.)

Who were these loans to and how much are they for? Were Roger, Tony and Hugh among the recipients?

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson politely says that's none of our bee's wax.

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