Clinton’s win Tuesday in Pennsylvania showed that the race for the presidential nomination is still up for grabs. As we get closer to the Democratic convention, and the upcoming general election, all the remaining candidates have now publicly released their tax returns. It may have taken Clinton and McCain longer than Obama, but it is always better late then never! It is important to take a detailed look at this data as it can shed light into financial habits of the candidates, and well as their charitable nature.
Hilary Clinton (D)
Estimated Net Worth: $34.9 Million
Although Hilary Clinton only takes in $165,200 per year in wages from serving as a U.S. Senator, her and her husband have made millions from book deals, speaking engagements, and interest from their fortune. Over the last 7 years the Clinton’s have an adjusted gross income of nearly $110 million, with almost half coming from former President Bill Clinton’s speaking engagements. According to their returns, the Clinton’s have paid a total of $33,783,507 in taxes, which puts them at an average tax rate of 31%. This rate is much higher then the average of only 20% for Americans making over $10 million.
Over the past seven years the Clinton’s have donated a total of $10,256,741, which is the highest contributions of all the remaining presidential candidates. They have given away a total of just under 10% of their adjusted gross income (AGI). The chart below provides a break down of their charitable contributions.
Barack Obama (D)
Estimated Net Worth: $1.3 Million
Barack Obama and his wife have the lowest estimated net worth of all the major presidential hopefuls, with most of their modest fortune coming from recent earnings. Back in 2000 the Obama’s combine wages were $240,505 which includes Barack’s salary as a young state senator and his wife’s salary as a hospital administrator. Their wages stayed relatively constant until 2005 when Barack made over $1.2 million from author fees and his wife’s salary increased to over $300,000.
An important thing to note about Obama’s return is the extremely small percent of their AGI that they donate to charities. From looking at the chart below, you can see that in 2001 and 2002 they donated less then 0.5% of their income. An Obama spokesperson claimed, "as new parents who were paying off their large student loans, giving $10,000 to charity [from 2000 to 2004] was as generous as they could be at the time." However, it is interesting to note that they made over $1.4 million in 2005 but still donated under 5% of their AGI to charity. This is a far lower percent than the Clinton’s donations in 6 of the past 7 years.
John McCain (R)
Estimated Net Worth: $40.4 Million
Although McCain may have the highest estimated net worth of the remaining candidates, his income according to his tax returns is much, much lower. Why? Because McCain is the only of the remaining candidates to file a separate return from his much wealthier wife. To be fair, the couple has filed separate returns for all but one of their 27 years of marriage. However, no information or summary of his wife’s fortune has yet been made public. Additionally, McCain is the only candidate to only release his two most recent returns. The Clinton’s have made their returns dating back to 1992 public, and the Obama’s have done so dating back to 2000.
In 2006 and 2007 McCain’s AGI was comparably low at just $338,809 and $386,527 respectively. The majority of his income comes for the $165,200 a year he earns as an U.S. Senator and his $54,000 Navy pension. As you can see from the chart below, due to his lower income, McCain donated the highest percent of his income out of the remaining candidates. Although his $202,225 donations in 2006 and 2007 totaled about 5% of the Clinton’s $4,580,503 total donations.
Charts courtesy of TaxProf Blog.
The content of this article are striclty related to the candidate’s personal income tax returns. For more information on their individual tax views check out Tax Views of Top 10 Presidential Candidates on the RDTC blog.