Bushes, Cheneys, Kerry Release Tax Returns

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From AOL Wire Services

WASHINGTON (April 13) - President Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney reaped tax benefits last year from the cuts that they pushed
through Congress and that Democrats have criticized as a boon to the
rich.

The government's top two executives, both wealthy men, paid smaller
shares of their income in federal taxes in 2003 than in the year
before, according to returns released Tuesday by the White House.

Bush and his wife, Laura, paid $227,490 in federal income taxes - or
about 28 percent of their $822,126 in adjusted gross income. For
2002, the Bushes paid about 31 percent of their adjusted gross
income - slightly higher at $856,056 - in federal taxes, for a total
of $268,719.

The difference from one year to the next was even more pronounced
for Cheney. He and his wife, Lynne, owed $253,067 in 2003 federal
taxes - about 20 percent of their $1.3 million in adjusted gross
income. In 2002, the Cheneys earned less but paid more, owing 29
percent - or $341,114 - of their $1.2 million in income.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the president and vice
president join 109 million other Americans also benefiting from the
tax cuts.

''And that's had the effect of spurring economic growth and creating
jobs,'' she said.

Democrat John Kerry, who is challenging President Bush for the White
House, paid $90,575 in federal taxes on income of $395,338,
according to copies of his tax return.

Kerry, whose total income was up dramatically from $144,091 in 2002,
augmented his $147,818 in wages with $89,000 from the sale of his
book "A Call to Service" and $145,000 in capital gains from the sale
of a half interest in a painting last year. The Massachusetts
senator plans to pay taxes on his book proceeds and donate the rest
to charity, his campaign said.


By the Numbers



AP


The Bushes

· Income: $822,126*
· Paid: $227,490**

AP


The Cheneys

· Income: $1.3M*
· Paid: $253,067**
Getty Images


John Kerry
· Income: $395,338*
· Paid: $90,575**


*Adjusted gross income | **In federal income taxes | Source: AP



He files his return separately from his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry,
heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune of $500 million or more. The
campaign did not release the tax return for his wife.

Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal
advocacy group whose statistical analyses are respected by
mainstream economists, analyzed the returns of the president and
vice president.

He found the tax cuts Bush backed saved the president nearly $31,000
on his 2003 bill over what he would have paid if there had been no
cuts.

Cheney saved $11,000, mostly because the alternative minimum tax -
designed to curb tax sheltering among high-income taxpayers - took
back about three-quarters of the tax-cut benefit he would have
reaped, McIntyre said.

Among the cuts that were in effect in 2003 but not in effect in 2002
were further decreases in tax rates at all bracket levels, an
expansion of the lowest 10 percent bracket and lower taxation of
capital gains and dividends.

''What can you say? They're rich, so you'd expect them to benefit
from a tax cut for the rich,'' McIntyre said.

Bush sees the tax cuts passed on his watch much differently. He has
traveled the country touting them as the reason the economy is
rebounding and likes to espouse his philosophy that cuts should go
to all.

''I insisted, on the tax relief, we cut the rates on everybody who
pays taxes,'' Bush said in El Dorado, Ark., last week. ''Some of
them howled up in Washington when I did that. See, my attitude is,
government ought not to play favorites.''


How Did You Do?




AP

Quick Tax Links
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Kerry has promised to repeal Bush's tax cuts for those making more
than $200,000 a year.

Most of the income for Bush and his wife, Laura, came from his
$397,264 in presidential income and $401,803 in interest from trusts
that hold their assets, plus $23,417 in dividend income.

Cheney and his wife had more varied sources of earnings, including
the vice president's $198,600 government salary; the $178,437 he
earned in deferred compensation from Halliburton Co., the Dallas-
based energy services firm he headed until Aug. 16, 2000; capital
gains of $302,602; Mrs. Cheney's income from work at the American
Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank; and
compensation from her service on the Reader's Digest board of
directors in 2003.

Mrs. Cheney also brought in $327,643 in royalties from her
books, ''America: A Patriotic Primer,'' ''A is for Abigail'' and
soon-to-be-out ''Fifty States.'' The Cheneys donated almost all of
those proceeds to charity. The couple also earned $627,005 in
interest that was exempt from taxes.

Halliburton has been awarded as much as $6 billion in contracts in
postwar Iraq but has been under scrutiny for allegedly overcharging
the government. Cheney elected in 1998 to recoup over five years a
fixed portion of the money he made in 1999 as the company's chief
executive officer.

Cheney's office has repeatedly stated that the vice president
doesn't have a financial stake in the success of Halliburton nor has
had any involvement in defense contracts.

The Bushes reported itemized deductions of $95,043, including
$68,360 to churches and charitable organizations, bringing their
taxable income down to $727,083.

The Cheneys reported itemized deductions of $454,649, including Mrs.
Cheney's book royalties, making their taxable income $813,266.

Kerry had $43,735 in charitable contributions among his $48,674 in
itemized deductions, which included more than $9,000 in medical and
dental expenses and more than $3,000 in home mortgage interest.

Kerry took out a second mortgage on his home in Boston's Beacon Hill
neighborhood last year to loan his presidential campaign about $6
million.

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