Bill and Hillary Clinton have come a long way since claiming $1 and $2 tax deductions for donating their used underwear to charity in the 1980s, earning $109 million between 2000 and 2007 and giving $10.3 million of it to charitable causes.
The joint federal income tax return figures, released yesterday by the Clinton campaign, show that the couple made $20.4 million last year and paid $5.1 million in federal income taxes — giving $3 million in charitable donations, including $1 million from the proceeds of Mr. Clinton’s new book “Giving.”
The release, held until late yesterday afternoon, comes five weeks after Mrs. Clinton promised to make public the documents during a televised presidential debate. She had resisted doing so for a long time, despite the fact she made her opponent’s tax returns an issue during her 2000 Senate race against Republican Rick Lazio.
“The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service,” said campaign spokesman Jay Carson. “None of Hillary Clinton’s presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.”
The multimillion-dollar income puts the couple in a new league from their days when Mr. Clinton served as governor of Arkansas and Mrs. Clinton was a lawyer at Little Rock’s Rose Law. Back then, she annually donated dozens of bags of clothing — hers, Bill’s and daughter Chelsea’s — to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and local shelters and charities, taking the time to personally list and value each item.
The yearly totals ran between $1,000 and $2,300 in tax-deductible donations. In addition to Bill and Chelsea’s underwear, Mr. Clinton’s used undershirts were priced at $3 each and his used running shoes at $10.
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The Clintons’ 2007 income, according to the documents, include $10.1 million in speaking engagements for Mr. Clinton, $4.4 million in book income, $3.5 from a blind trust, $2.7 million from partnerships and $485,000 from income from savings accounts.
The returns also show the couple received $603,811 in foreign tax credits on income from the United Kingdom, Australia, Puerto Rico and Canada and various other countries not identified from 2000 to 2006.
The documents detailed $58,400 in imputed interest from a “loan to family member” from 2001 to 2006.
Several of the Clinton returns — years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 — were unsigned and undated, suggesting they were perhaps amended returns. The remainder were signed but all dated in 2007. The campaign did not respond to several followup questions about the signatures and family loan.
The figures, according to the Clinton campaign, are based on “the best estimates” of the Clintons’ tax attorney because the couple will file for an extension to file while they await information on partnership income from a now-unblinded trust.
The Clinton finances have been an issue since the senator was forced to loan herself $5 million before Super Tuesday to remain competitive with her Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Last month, Mr. Obama released his tax figures showing that his income had skyrocketed from about $207,000 in 2004 to nearly $1.7 million in 2005 thanks to book deals. They also documented that he and his wife had briskly increased their charitable giving — donating $137,622 to charities in 2005 and 2006, including $27,500 to the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., has been at the center of criticism over his sermons about racism in America.
“Senator Clinton can’t claim to be vetted until she allows the public the opportunity to see her finances—particularly with respect to any investment in tax shelters,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said last month. Yesterday, the Obama campaign was quiet.
Presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has not released his returns, prompting the Democratic National Committee to label him a “disturbing exception” to the Democratic hopefuls.
“As a self-professed champion of disclosure and ethics, John McCain should explain why for the past 26 years he has not seen fit to provide this important financial information to voters,” said DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also has demanded Mr. McCain give the public his returns, noting only a handful of candidates over the past several election cycles have declined to do so.
In 1994, the Clintons released 64 pages of income tax records and other documents they previously had refused to make public. They showed that the couple — while he was governor and she was a partner at Little Rock’s Rose Law Firm — made $118,148 in commodities-trading profits and consulting fees during the two-year period.
The returns documented that Mrs. Clinton was active as a commodities trader and apparently quite successful, making a $100,000 profit in highly volatile cattle futures in trading that was guided by James Blair, attorney for Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, Ark., the nation’s largest chicken-processing company and the state’s largest employer. Its owner, Don Tyson, is a longtime Clinton political ally.
The trading began three weeks before Mr. Clinton won his first term as Arkansas governor and ended about a year later.
The Clintons’ returns can be viewed at www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/returns
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton yesterday released tax returns for the years 2000 through 2006, and a summary of their yet-to-be-filed 2007 taxes.
•Income: $109,175,175 million
•Taxes paid: $33,783,507 million
— 31 percent of their adjusted gross income
•Charitable contributions: $10,256,741 million
— 9.4 percent of their adjusted gross income.
•Mrs. Clinton’s book income: $10,457,083 million
— earnings for “Living History” ($10,267,895), including an $8,000,000 advance, and “It Takes a Village” ($189,188, which was donated to charity).
•Mr. Clinton”s book income: $29,580,525 million
— earnings for “My Life” ($23,280,525), including a $15,000,000 advance, and “Giving” ($6,300,000). Mr. Clinton donated $1,000,000 of his income from “Giving” in 2007 to charity.
•Mr. Clinton”s speech income: $51,855,599 million
•Source: Hillary for President
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