The Bushes Report Income But Only Part of the Returns
nytimes.com
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
April 12, 2003
President and Mrs. Bush released part of their income tax returns yesterday, breaking with a 26-year tradition of sitting presidents fully informing the public about their income and taxes. A significantly fuller copy was made available to The New York Times.
Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, issued a statement and provided, at the request of The Times, a copy of the actual tax return.
The Bushes reported adjusted gross income of $856,058 last year and paid taxes of $268,719, or 31.4 percent. The salary of the president is $400,000, but the Bushes reported only $397,534. The White House press office said it was unable to explain this disparity.
In 2001 the Bushes reported adjusted gross income of $811,100 and paid taxes of $250,202, or 30.8 percent.
Most of the income in both years was interest from the blind trust into which President Bush put the fortune he made from his investment in the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. The Bushes declared $436,028 of taxable interest last year.
The Bushes claimed $84,118 in itemized deductions, including $69,925 to churches and charities, down from $82,700 in 2001. Southern Methodist University, Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, Tarrytown United Methodist Church and the Federal Government's Combined Federal Campaign were cited in a statement as recipients of gifts.
The Cheneys reported income of $1,166,735 and taxes of $341,114, or 29.2 percent. The Cheneys reported $221,684 in itemized deductions, including charitable gifts of $121,983. The Cheneys also had $559,461 of tax-exempt interest.
Last year Vice President Cheney released only part of his tax return to some news organizations, although later his office provided a nearly complete copy to The New York Times. Other news organizations that sought the return were rebuffed, including the journal Tax Notes, a nonprofit organization that posts presidential tax returns going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt at its virtual museum at www.taxhistory.org.
The founder of the virtual museum, Joseph Thorndike, called the White House response to its requests for the Cheney tax returns "Orwellian."
"The White House and the office of the vice president tells the public they are releasing their tax returns," Mr. Thorndike, a historian, said. "Then they don't, because they give out just a summary or just Form 1040, which is not a tax return but just one part of it."
Mr. Thorndike said his staff has tried for two years to obtain the 2000 and 2001 tax returns of Mr. Cheney and his wife. "They never say no," he said. "They just don't give it to us."
A full copy of the 2002 Cheney return was provided to Mr. Thorndike's staff last night, Cathie Martin, Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman, said.
The White House withheld an unknown number of pages, including nine statements on the Bush return, when it made part of the tax return available yesterday to the White House press corps. The nine statements and a document showing the calculation for a $414 depletion allowance, presumably from the president's former oil business, were provided to The New York Times at its request.
One statement justifies $25,595 in miscellaneous deductions claimed by the Bushes, mostly fees for managing their investments.
No law requires the president or vice president to make their returns public. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton all followed President Jimmy Carter in fully disclosing their tax returns.
The tradition began in 1977, when President Carter released his tax returns to ensure public trust in the office of the presidency. He said he acted because of the tax evasion charges to which Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest in 1973 and the fraudulent $576,000 tax deduction that President Richard M. Nixon took in his first year in the White House.
Mr. Nixon was never charged, but Edward L. Morgan, a White House lawyer and a Treasury assistant secretary in the Nixon administration, pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 1975 over the preparation of Mr. Nixon's return. He served four months in federal prison.
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