The White House released copies of the tax returns for both the Bushes and the Cheneys late last week.
President Bush and the first lady paid $186,378 in federal taxes on their adjusted gross income of $765,801, about $30,000 higher than the 2005 calendar year. The president’s salary is about $400,000 and the couple also received investment income from the blind trusts in which their assets are held -- the $42,000 they reported in taxable capital gains was the first of his presidency.
The couple paid $27,474 in state property taxes on their ranch in Crawford, Texas -- up about $1,000 from the previous year -- and also contributed about $78,000 to churches and charitable organizations, including the Crawford Volunteer Fire Department, the Federal Government's Combined Federal Campaign, Operation Smile, Martha's Table, the Salvation Army, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Yellow Ribbon Support Center.
The return for Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, shows that they owed federal taxes of $413,326 on taxable income of $1.6 million. But throughout last year, the Cheneys paid $464,789 in taxes, more than $50,000 too much which they will have applied to their 2007 tax bill.
Cheney's vice presidential salary is about $208,000, and his tax return also reports a pension benefit of $27,500, which he will receive as a former director of Union Pacific Corp. Cheney became eligible for the benefit last year, when he turned 65. The tax return also reports Lynne Cheney's book royalty income, and her salary from her work at the American Enterprise Institute and a pension benefit of $32,000, as a former director of Reader's Digest.
The Cheneys also donated more than $100,000 to charity in 2006, bringing their total charitable contributions since 2000 to just over $7.8 million.
Both families avoided the alternative minimum tax. The Bushes claim residence in Texas, and the Cheneys claim it in Wyoming, two of the six states that don't impose the high state and local taxes that frequently trigger the AMT.
