Gingrich Releases Tax Returns

Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich released his income tax returns as pressure mounted on rival candidate Mitt Romney to do the same.

The former Speaker of the House released his and his wife Callista’s joint federal income tax return for 2010 on Thursday evening, shortly before a debate among the remaining candidates. Gingrich also released the tax return for the Gingrich Foundation, his Section 501(c)3 tax-exempt private foundation.

The Gingriches’ joint income tax return shows that for 2010, Gingrich and his wife owed federal taxes of $994,708 on an adjusted gross income of $3,142,066. The return indicated that $613,517 of the tax amount owed had been previously withheld or otherwise paid, and the couple paid the remaining balance due of $382,734 (which included an estimated $1,543 tax penalty) with their filing.

Included in the wage and salary income reported on Gingrich and his wife’s tax return was $450,245 in combined wages; $41,625 in income from speaking and board of directors fees; $6,853 in rental income from real estate holdings; $11,892 in ordinary dividends; $5,990 in qualified dividends; and $2,525,683 in income from partnerships and S corporations, including the Lubbers Agency Inc. and Gingrich Holdings Inc.

For the year 2010, the Speaker and Mrs. Gingrich reported $4,184 in net short-term capital gains and $32,541 in net long-term capital losses. Over the course of the year, the couple also contributed $81,133 to various charities, including the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The Gingrich Foundation return indicated that the foundation received the bulk of its $155,489 in income from a $152,609 contribution from Gingrich’s own company, Gingrich Holdings. Gingrich, his wife Callista and his two daughters are on the board, but received no compensation. The foundation contributed $120,000 to various causes, including $20,000 to the Immaculate Conception basilica and $30,000 to Luther College.

“I obviously pay all full taxes,” said Gingrich during the CNN-sponsored debate in Charleston, S.C. “I’m honest in my dealings with people. People understand that. My taxes are carefully managed. And I pay a lot of taxes. I've been very successful.”

At the same debate, Gingrich’s rival, Mitt Romney indicated that he would probably release multiple years of his tax returns, but declined to say how many.

“When my taxes are complete for this year, and I know that if I’m the nominee, the President is going to want to insist that I show what my income was this last year, so when they’re completed this year in April, I will release my returns in April for his year, and probably for other years as well,” Romney said.
Romney was reminded that his father George Romney had released 12 years’ worth of tax returns in 1967 when he was running for the presidency, but the Republican front-runner was noncommittal.

“I don’t know how many years I’ll release,” he said. “I’ll release multiple years, I don’t know how many years, but I’ll be happy to do that. I know there are some who are anxious to see if they can make it difficult for a campaign to be successful. I know the Democrats want to go after my being successful. I’m not going to apologize for being successful.”

Pressure has been growing on Romney to release his tax returns after he had earlier indicated that he would not release them (see Romney May Not Release Tax Return). He admitted at a campaign stop this week that the effective tax rate on his income is probably close to the capital gains rate of 15 percent since most of his income comes from investments that he made in the past “rather than ordinary income or annual earned income” (see Romney to Release Tax Return in April).

Romney’s net worth is estimated to be over $250 million, while Gingrich has a net worth of over $6.5 million.

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Tax practice Finance
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