August 7, 2015
Hillary and Bill Clinton Release 8 Years of Tax Returns
Hillary and Bill Clinton paid $43.9 million in federal taxes from 2007 through 2014 on adjusted gross income totaling $139,097,232, according to tax returns released by the former secretary of state's presidential campaign last Friday.
That put the Clintons near the very, very top of the American economic scale. Their 2012 adjusted gross income of $19.7 million put them in the top 0.01 percent, a level reached by fewer than 14,000 households, and represents a meteoric rise for a couple that once depended on Hillary Clinton's law firm salary. She was the prime family breadwinner when Bill Clinton was making $35,000 a year as governor of Arkansas.
The Clintons average federal tax rate during that eight-year period works out to 31.6 percent. In 2014, with both Clintons on the paid-speech circuit and Hillary Clinton on tour to promote her most recent memoir, the couple brought in more income than in any previous year: $27,946,490. They reported paying a federal tax rate of 35.7 percent in 2014 and donating 10.8 percent of their income to charity.
Among the nuggets in the Clintons' tax forms: The couple has his-and-her LLCs, a corporate entity created by independent earners for tax advantages. Hillary Clinton's post-State Department income from speeches and her book, Hard Choices, was paid to ZFS Holdings LLC, established in Delaware a week after she left the job. Her husband uses a similar entity, WJC LLC, to take in speech and consulting income. The Clintons listed WJC but not ZFS in financial disclosures released earlier this year, and the Clinton campaign did not respond to questions about why the candidate's LLC was not disclosed.
The Clintons disclosed $3,022,700 in charitable contributions last year, including $3 million to the Clinton Family Foundation and $200 to Hot Springs High School's class of 1964, for which the former president attended his 50th reunion last fall. In all, the Clintons gave $14,959,450 in charitable contributions between 2007 and 2014, though nearly all-$14,769,000-went to the Clinton Family Foundation, which disburses donations to other charities, including the Clinton Foundation.
The Clintons utilize a tax strategy that I have advocated over the years. Their smart tax adviser has set up a tax savings strategy utilizing their own charity. It is real nice to contribute to your own charity, take the tax deduction and then get some of the money back as administrative fees.
Wishing you many happy returns,
