October 16, 2004
Vincent Morris and Deborah Orin report on Teresa Heinz Kerry's 2003 income tax information released yesterday:
They report: John Kerry's near-billionaire wife, Teresa, reported more than $5 million in total income last year but paid only 12.5 percent in federal taxes — less than the average middle-class family — according to documents released yesterday by his campaign.
Teresa Heinz Kerry reported a total income of $5,072,533, including nearly $2.8 million that escaped all federal taxes because it was on interest-free investments from state, city and other public bonds. She paid $628,401 in federal taxes, or a rate of 12.47 percent. The average middle-class family pays more than 20 percent.
Posted by The Big Trunk
What is even more troubling to me, is that her EFFECTIVE EARNING RATE on her wealth (estimated at between $500,000,000 and $3.5 BILLION) is evidently so paltry. If we take the low estimate of her wealth, then she earned only 1% on her wealth. That is simply not credible, and indicates to me that her holdings have been rigged in such a way as to avoid showing any income at all.
This is not illegal - but it is HYPOCRITICAL coming from the slate that promotes itself as being for fair taxes and for rich people paying their fair share.
This is PRECISELY why Mrs. Heinz Kerry refuses to release anything but the FIRST TWO pages of her taxes; the other pages would reveal how her accountants and lawyers have exploited the tax code with a maze of tax-shelters available only to the very wealthy.
The Kerrys evidently are not entirely shameless.
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