Heinz Kerry Hiding $45 Million in Income, Paid Just 1.2% in Taxes

[John Ashcroft]

Teresa Heinz Kerry earns approximately $50 million in annual income, ten times what she revealed on tax forms released late Friday, according to the New York Times.

The staggering sum generated a mere 1.2 percent federal income tax liability, unless Heinz Kerry paid additional federal taxes not shown on the forms released Friday.

The average middle class American family pays 20 percent of their income in taxes, a rate 16 times higher than the would-be first family.

Noting that the Kerry campaign has not challenged an estimate earlier this year that Heinz Kerry's net worth is close to $1 billion, the Times said Saturday, "Even a modest 5 percent return would have generated $50 million of income." Tax forms released Friday show she paid a puny $628,000 in income taxes.
While that figure represents 12.3 percent of the $5 million annual income disclosed on the documents, that number would decline to 1.2 percent when calculated against the Times' income estimate for Heinz Kerry.

The $45 million in income not disclosed by Heinz Kerry was likely derived from Heinz family trusts that benefit the would-be first couple.

Portions of Heinz Kerry's tax return not made public would detail her personal investment accounts, accounts controlled by the family trust and any offshore investments she controls, the Times said.

Financial experts cited by the New York Post on Saturday said that the Kerry family's reported $5 million annual income wouldn't come close to covering their lavish lifestyle, which includes five estates, multiple cars, a $3.5 million Gulfstream V jet complete with plasma TV, gold fixtures and two bathrooms, a yacht worth $750,000 to $1 million and servants in every location.

Link: here

[ELVIS]

Lock her up!

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by John Ashcroft
Teresa Heinz Kerry earns approximately $50 million in annual income, ten times what she revealed on tax forms released late Friday, according to the New York Times.

The staggering sum generated a mere 1.2 percent federal income tax liability, unless Heinz Kerry paid additional federal taxes not shown on the forms released Friday.

The average middle class American family pays 20 percent of their income in taxes, a rate 16 times higher than the would-be first family.

Noting that the Kerry campaign has not challenged an estimate earlier this year that Heinz Kerry's net worth is close to $1 billion, the Times said Saturday, "Even a modest 5 percent return would have generated $50 million of income." Tax forms released Friday show she paid a puny $628,000 in income taxes.

You don't make investment income until you sell investments. So saying someone (or something as in the trusts they allude to) definitely generated x amount of income from y amount of investment is either foolish or misleading

Also, if all you know is an estimate of income and the final tax liability, you can't just derive the tax rate from that. It doesn't take into account things like prior year loss carry-overs that could lessen her tax liability. This article omits any mention of that very important detail


While that figure represents 12.3 percent of the $5 million annual income disclosed on the documents, that number would decline to 1.2 percent when calculated against the Times' income estimate for Heinz Kerry.

The $45 million in income not disclosed by Heinz Kerry was likely derived from Heinz family trusts that benefit the would-be first couple.

Portions of Heinz Kerry's tax return not made public would detail her personal investment accounts, accounts controlled by the family trust and any offshore investments she controls, the Times said.

Financial experts cited by the New York Post on Saturday said that the Kerry family's reported $5 million annual income wouldn't come close to covering their lavish lifestyle, which includes five estates, multiple cars, a $3.5 million Gulfstream V jet complete with plasma TV, gold fixtures and two bathrooms, a yacht worth $750,000 to $1 million and servants in every location.

Link: here

JA, I am surprised you posted this sloppy excuse for journalism. What about the bush's assets? Who lowered capital gains taxes? Is this supposed to be from the NY Times or NY Post? The way the articles flows, it looks like a bit of bait and switch to me.

[Seshmeister]

Rich people don't pay taxes shock...

[Warham]

The Kerry's make FAR more money than Bush ever will.

He'd be the richest president by far if elected, mostly because he's a gold digger.

[lucky wilbury]

the money list this election went like this (from memory):

kerry at 1 billion
cheney at 80 million
edwards at 50 million
bush at 20 million

[Pink Spider]

Only $20,000,000?

[lucky wilbury]

yep and most of that is the value of his ranch in texas. all those acres are worth big bucks. i'll try to find the article on it

[Pink Spider]

He probably owns a small island too. You know poor people. See if you can find anything on that.

[FORD]

The BCE can't declare most of their income because drug smuggling ain't exactly legal like ketchup and Heinz 57 sauce.

[lucky wilbury]

heres on article on it there was a recent on on this but i can't find it:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in627254.shtml

Campaign '04: Rich Vs. Wealthy

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2004



(CBS/AP) Americans have a choice in November — they can vote for millionaires John Kerry and John Edwards, or cast their ballot for millionaires George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Of the foursome, Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne, reported adjusted gross income of $1.3 million, according to their 2003 tax returns. That's more than the other candidates reported and far more than what the typical American family brings home: the median household income in 2002 was slightly more than $42,400, according to the Census Bureau. Only about 2 percent of homes make more than $200,000.

Count the Bush, Kerry, Cheney and Edwards clans among those 2 percent.

President Bush and his wife, Laura, listed $822,126 in adjusted gross income on their 2003 returns, while Kerry's income was about $393,000.

The four-term Massachusetts senator has four trusts worth between $430,000 and $2.1 million.

The Democratic candidate filed his return separately from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the $500 million Heinz Co. fortune. She released information showing earnings of at least $5 million in 2003.

Mr. Bush, a former oil company executive, major league baseball owner and governor of Texas, lists among his assets his beloved 1,583-acre Texas ranch, worth between $1 million and $5 million. He also has U.S. Treasury notes valued at $5 million to $8.7 million.

Cheney, who once headed Halliburton Co., has between $15 million to $75 million in tax-exempt bond funds and $2 million to $10 million in stocks being handled by a global investment management firm.

Edwards, the North Carolina senator and Kerry's running mate, hasn't released his 2003 returns. He did file a financial disclosure statement that's required of the president, vice president, Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress.

In the statement, Edwards disclosed income of at least $680,000 last year, although that's a conservative estimate because lawmakers are allowed to list their income on disclosure forms in broad financial ranges.

While those statements lack the specifics of a tax return, they do offer a glimpse into the personal wealth of politicians. The net worth of Mr. Bush, Cheney, Kerry and Edwards runs well into the millions.

Edwards, the son of a two mill workers, built most of his wealth as a highly successful trial attorney, winning $150 million worth of verdicts or settlements in the 1990s. His financial statement shows assets of at least $19 million. Last year, Edwards sold his Washington, D.C., home for $3 million, $800,000 more than what he paid for in 1999.

Running for national political office takes millions and millions, so having millionaire candidates isn't unusual, Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, it's not," Lewis said. "It's a sad commentary on our system."

Lewis said a voter may instead consider how a candidate made their money, or in what profession, rather than if they are wealthy. He also noted that in this year's Democratic primaries, less wealthier candidates such as Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Al Sharpton weren't popular with voters.

While both tickets are wealthy now, the candidates' biographies display other patterns suggesting how each man came to be wealthy.

Both Kerry and Mr. Bush went to Yale. Cheney attended Yale for over a year but got his degree from the University of Wyoming. Edwards went to North Carolina State. Mr. Bush went to business school at Harvard. Kerry and Edwards went to law school, at Boston College and the University of North Carolina, respectively. Cheney got his masters at Wyoming.

Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., said he didn't think the typical voter "sees (rich candidates) as hypocrisy or as inconsistent. For the voters that matter, they will look at positions and policies more than anything else."

[jcook11]

How can you expect a pauper like her to pay taxws Fucking assholes

[Lqskdiver]

So I guess they'd be excluded when it came to the tax cut the rich got some time back.