President Bush's Tax Returns Are Made Public

Published: April 14, 2006 WASHINGTON, April 14 — The president and Laura Bush reported adjusted gross income of $735,180 for last year and paid federal income taxes of $187,768, slightly less than in 2004, according to a copy of the couple's 2005 return released today by the White House. The tax return listed as income the president's salary of about $400,000 and proceeds from investment trusts that hold the couple's assets. They paid $207,307 in taxes in 2004 on income of $784,219. Their returns were made public along with those of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who reported that their 2005 taxes were $529,636. The Cheneys' adjusted gross income was $8.82 million, but most of it was not taxable: $6.69 million was proceeds from stock options that the couple had set aside for charity and that were distributed last year, and other charitable contributions came from royalties on books written by Mrs. Cheney. As a result, the Cheneys' taxable income was $1.96 million. In a statement, the White House said that over the course of the year, the couple paid $2.5 million in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments, in part to deal with the exercise of the stock options. Given that their 2005 taxes are a little over half a million dollars, they are due a refund of about $1.9 million, the statement said. The White House emphasized that the Cheneys had received no personal financial benefit from the charitable donations. "The transactions were tax-neutral to the Cheneys," it said, adding that the large tax refund would return them "to a neutral position of no personal financial benefit or financial detriment resulting" from the gifts. The White House said the stock options had been granted to the Cheneys by the Halliburton Company, Mr. Cheney's former employer, and from the couple's work on the boards of other companies. The money, it said, was designated for three charities: the University of Wyoming, the Cardiothoracic Institute of George Washington University, and Capital Partners for Education, a group that works with low-income high school students in Washington. The Bushes said they contributed $75,560 to churches and other tax-exempt organizations in 2005, about $2,200 less than the year before, and that the recipients last year included the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army's disaster relief funds for the United States and Pakistan. The 2005 donations amounted to 10.3 percent of the couple's income. SOURCE