Washington:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, earned more than USD 139 million between 2007 and 2014, according to eight years of federal income tax returns released by her campaign.
The returns released today show that the Clintons paid an overall federal tax rate of 31.6 per cent during those years.
The bulk of the Clintons’ income came from speeches delivered to corporate and interest groups by Bill Clinton and later by Hillary Clinton after she resigned as secretary of state in early 2013.
In a statement released by her campaign, Hillary Clinton said the couple has paid nearly USD 44 million in federal taxes on USD 139.1 million in income since 2006, and donated nearly USD 15 million to charity.
The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state appears unlikely to face a formidable Democratic opponent in the primary campaign, unlike in 2008 when she lost the nomination to Barack Obama.
Should she win the nomination, Clinton would face the winner of a crowded Republican primary field that could feature as many as two dozen candidates.
Clinton’s statement did not comment on the specifics of her earnings. Last May, financial disclosures released by her campaign reported that the couple had earned more than USD 30 million from speeches and book royalties since January 2014.
The Associated Press has estimated the Clintons made nearly USD 50 million in earnings from speeches alone since 2000.
The Clintons donated nearly 11 per cent of their income to charity in 2014, according to her tax return. This year, the Clintons boosted personal donations to their global family charity, the Clinton Foundation, to between USD 5 million and USD 10 million.
Clinton used the occasion to reinforce her call from earlier this month for tax code reforms that would tighten restrictions on corporate profits and tax benefits for wealthy Americans. The federal tax code, she said, is “full of loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans and most powerful corporations to game the system and avoid paying their fair share.”
She has vowed, if elected, to revive a push in Congress to institute the so-called Buffett rule, named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, which would impose a minimum tax rate of 30 per cent on anyone making more than USD 1 million a year.
Clinton also reaffirmed her pledge to close the “carried interest” loophole in federal taxes if elected president.
