John McCain Reported $405,409 in Income Last Year

18 Apr 2008 // John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, reported $405,409 in income last year and paid $118,660 in federal taxes, according to tax returns made public today. He gave $105,467 to charity, the records show.

His campaign didn't release tax returns for his wife, Cindy, who is chairman of the Phoenix-based Hensley & Co., one of the largest beer distributors in the U.S.

The disclosure of tax information has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Illinois Senator Barack Obama released his tax information in March and then pressured his rival for the Democratic nomination, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, to disclose her tax records.

Presidential candidates aren't required to release their tax information but typically do so voluntarily after they become their party's nominee.

McCain's income came from his $161,708 salary, $23,157 in Social Security benefits, $176,508 in book royalties and a Navy pension. The remaining income comes from a share of his wife's income which under tax law he must claim.

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said making Cindy McCain's tax information public would violate the privacy of their two children who are still claimed as dependents.

``They've always maintained separate finances,'' Hazelbaker said.

Teresa Heinz Kerry

In 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry initially didn't make public the returns of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, heir to a $500 million fortune, until three weeks before the election.

Hazelbaker said Cindy McCain's situation differs from Teresa Heinz Kerry because Kerry had loaned money to her husband's campaign and Cindy McCain hasn't done so.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the failure to release Cindy McCain's returns shouldn't fly with voters because transparency has been ``a signature issue for John McCain,'' and not releasing her information smacks of hypocrisy.

``He should just release the tax returns and make it a non- issue,'' Sloan said.

As for the McCain campaign's argument that Teresa Heinz Kerry's release of her returns was different because she had loaned her husband's campaign money, Sloan said Cindy McCain is ``married to a presidential candidate and that's enough.''

Cindy McCain

McCain's tax return does provide some information about his wife's income. It reports she earned $432,991 from Hensley & Co. in 2007 from which she had $85,833 in taxes withheld. His return shows no information about her investment income. McCain, 71, an Arizona senator, reported a total of $48 in taxable interest, $74 in dividends, and no capital gains or losses in 2007.

McCain paid $5,413 in alternative minimum tax, a levy he has proposed repealing. He also deducted the $12,000 cost of preparing financial disclosure forms for the Senate.

Obama's 2007 tax return showed he and his wife earned $4.2 million last year, more than the previous seven years combined.

Hillary Clinton released seven years of returns on April 4 covering the years since she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House. They earned $109 million from 2000 through 2007 and paid $33.8 million in taxes. They also gave away $10.3 million in charity, most of which was donated to their family foundation, which can disperse grants over time.

The McCain family foundation paid $78,250 to charities in 2007. The biggest gifts included $25,000 to Operation Smile, a charity that pays for surgery to correct facial deformities and $25,000 to the HALO trust, an organization that clears land mines.