Bushes Pay Taxes on $923,807 Income

WASHINGTON — The federal tax bill for President Bush and his wife: $221,635. That's how much the Bushes owed on their adjusted gross income of $923,807 for the year 2007, according to a joint return released Friday. The Bushes have paid $203,894 so far, which means they'll need to break out the checkbook _ they owe the government $17,741.

Their income total includes a $150,000 advance received by Laura Bush for the children's book she co-authored with her daughter, Jenna.

Last year, the president and Mrs. Bush paid $186,378 in federal taxes on their income of $765,801.

Bush's salary as president is about $400,000.

Almost 29 percent of the Bushes' income comes from interest on investments. The largest share of that interest was paid out from one place, The Lone Star Trust, according to the return released by the White House.

The White House also reported that Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, had an adjusted gross income of $3.04 million in 2007.

The Cheneys owed $602,651 in federal taxes on that income. They have paid $466,165 through withholdings and estimated tax payments, and will pay the remaining $136,486 upon filing their tax return.

The Cheneys' income includes the vice president's salary and a pension he gets as a former director of Union Pacific Corp. It also includes Lynne Cheney's book royalty income, a salary from her work at the American Enterprise Institute and a pension she gets as a former director of Reader's Digest.

The vice president's salary is about $212,000.

Mrs. Bush donated all net proceeds from her book advance to Teach for America and The New Teacher Project, according to the White House.

The Bushes contributed $165,660 to churches and charitable organizations, including the volunteer fire department in Crawford, Texas, where they own a ranch. The Cheneys donated $166,547 to charity in 2007, the White House said.

Comments

[lornejl]

Big Dick prefers to be paid in corpses.

[CC1]

The Bushes owe the world a whole hell of a lot more than they owe the IRS. Tax debts should be the least of their concern.

[mlaiuppa]

Bush's taxes are about 25% of his income.

Cheney's taxes are about 20% of his income.

Why? Shouldn't these guys be in a higher tax bracket than most of the rest of us? Why are both of them paying less % of taxes than *I* am?

[dclobbyist]

You need a better accountant

[Davwbaird]

the rich get richer on oufr backs?

[GnitenGoodLk]

...and we're paying for their top notch personal, private and state of the art healthcare for the rest of their miserables lives too.

[OCPatriot]

These people are almost all wealthy individuals. Bush and his family don't want anyone to know how much they're really worth. Face it, Bush is a rich man. I had a close friend who, when I told her this, stared at me with incredulity. She found it hard to believe, a tribute to Bush's PR of riding around his little ranch and looking very blue collar. The Clintons are new to garnering wealth, and talking about one hundred million plus over five or so years is only 20 mil a year, not much compared to the accumulated wealth of so many of the people in high places. You can't denigrate the Clintons for doing this; it's the American Way; the only defense against their contemporaries is to accumulate wealth which is respected by such contemporaries. The difference is in how self-centered Bush and Cheney are as opposed to people like Warren Buffet and George Soros (believe it or not) and Bill Gates, who are using their wealth to improve the world.

[NicoleAnonymous]

And those people who use their wealth to improve the world are also using it as a tax deduction. Please provide me with the name of ANY billionaire who can provide proof that he donates over 10% of his income to charity.

Those people probably give the same percentage of their income that most Americans do - they aren't more generous than anyone else.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

Mormons pay 10%. Aren't there any Mormon billionaires?

[noozone]

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Ted Turner to name three

[fitconnection]

Not only that, but the Bush family has done business with two of America's greatest enemies:

Hitler's Nazis and the Bin Laden Family.

Nice company they keep, huh?

[LiberalDemIda]

Let's not forget the busiiness with the Taliban when Dubya was Governor of Texas.

I wonder how Americans can vote for a man whose family has supported Hilter's Nazi's, the Saudis and the uber-rich bin Laden family NOT to mention the little known fact that Dubya was openly toutiing Texas real estate to Taliban leaders!

And *then* Americans buy American media BS and reward the most anti-American welp of the most anti-American family in the U.S to the WH.

Unbelievable.

[Wulfstan]

What about the billion dollars Prince Bandar paid into the Bush family trust in Switzerland.

[lornejl]

Exactly, not to mention, deferred payments for services rendered.

[Memorye]

To all that is posting / Post your pay for a year.. My was 80.000 paid in 2200.00/ next

[WLA]

Speak English first. Then I will answer you that it is none of your business. I'm sure you are proud of your 80 dollars, though.

[krocklin]

All of you seem to be ignorant of what "reporting your income" entails when you are under public scrutiny as a public figure who doesn't want anyone knowing what his real wealth is..
Your accountants simply move it into accounts and investments not detectable on a pubicly disclosed statement.
For example, lets say George W. has 100 million dollars - and keep in mind that the Bush family is wealthier than the Kerrys and Kennedy's combined but very wary of disclosing this - then he would be earning in simple interest $5million dollars. This is probably fairly close to the truth. But instead of interest bearing accounts, which would look really bad to the public, its invested instead in various shelters and put into as many trusts and so on as possible - instruments in other words that don't yield taxable income. Even Municipal bonds.

[Memorye]

You are so right.

[letsmakesense]

Cheney retained his shares of Halliburton which have tripled since the war began and since he has not sold them it is not counted as income. Almost all members of Congress own shares of company profiting from the war. Ron Paul excluded. Wake up sheeple. U R the enemy.

[Sylmason]

Thank you for breaking this down to the ignoant republicans who really can't see the forest for the trees. Afterall, they gave the duo eight years to stockpile money. What about the money they stole from Saddam Hussien? He had hundreds of millions stored in Iraq and for some reason that money is missing? Can we figure out where that money is? Bush/Chene­y/Rumsfeld­/Rove. They had a good stealing time.

I pray for KARMA.

[wmbear]

KNOW WHAT THAT EXPRESSION on Bush's face really says? "Suckahs!"

[w&cheneysuck]

If Bush was a true Christian, he would repent for his sins and ask for forgivenes­s.....that will NEVER happen....­.he hides behind his faith; a faith that he is 180 degrees different from.....y­et the people followed..­...sheep..­..lambs...­..down to the path of destruction and taking the nation with you....con­gratulatio­ns Christians­.....is this what you signed up for? Is this what you really wanted? Christians DO NOT BEHAVE THIS WAY. Bush is the DEVIL ON EARTH and CHENEY his assistant.­...(LEADER for all you know....).­....SCUM OF THE EARTH.....­.!!!

[momofsonofwar]

SCUM SEWER DWELLERS Is more like it for me. I really dislike these men today and wish them poor health for the rest of their lives.

Mom

[Barbarossa03]

And you can thank the idiots of the Christian Coalition for swallowing Bush's hollow faith hook, line, and sinker!

You actually have it reversed, Cheney is the devil and Bush is his little stooge.

[Enid]

The fine print

They Busch made $267904.03 DLLARS IN INTEREST FROM THE TRST

thats INTEREST, interest only

do the math

[speakingtruth2power]

And that's just the money they had to declare.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

Hadn't known until now that the IRS had approved ENRON accounting on pResident's tax returns, where favors given and received have no official monetary value. But like the US dollar and our Constitution that Bushco have devalued with Iraq war and China borrowing, it's just pieces of virtual and worthless paper anyway. The soon to be issued trillion dollar bill will have Chimpy & Cheney's pictures, one on each side.

[CharltonHestonsGUN]

BUSH, LIKE HITLER, IS AN EMOTIONAL CRIPPLE PLAYING OUT HIS ROLE IN HISTORY
The key to understanding George W Bush is understanding his almost psychotic fear of failure and humiliation which causes him to avoid reality at all costs and drives his messianic behavior and agenda ~ much like it did Hitler's in the 1930's

[speakingtruth2power]

Fortunately for US,

Hitler had talents.

[wmbear]

LIKE, HITLER COULD ACTUALLY write and speak and even (for a time) carry out successful invasions of other countries. If Bush had become Commissioner of Baseball like he really wanted, baseball would probably be in Chapter 11 bankruptcy by now....

[leftLibertarian]

Impeach the criminals Bush and Cheney.

[ThePodiumIsMine]

On what? Feelings? Nothing more than feelings?
Woe oh woe oh feeeeeeeel­lllliiiiin­nnggggs...­.....

Grow up.

[23000Days]

War crimes, usurpation, etc., etc.,

Bone up.

[Mattie]

yesterday here on Huffpo Obama supporters were praising Cheney because of the wonderful energy bill he crafted to give millions of tax dollar to big oil, while average Americans pay 3.30 a gallon. Which is it, is he a monster, which is what I believe, or a great guy who Obama felt compelled to support by voting for the energy bill that most people called one of the worst examples of a corporate pay off ever seen in history.

[MajorKong]

Sure glad them Bush's and Cheney's are just plain folks and not elitists like that there Obama feller.