Cindy McCain releases tax returns

After months of pressure, Cindy McCain, wife of republican presidential nominee John McCain, released the summary pages of her 2006 and 2007 federal income tax returns for public scrutiny. This information is now available on the McCain campaign's Web site [1]. Mrs. McCain had received an extension to file her 2007 tax returns because she had not received all information necessary to complete the returns. Senator and Mrs. McCain have filed separate tax returns throughout their marriage, because Mrs. McCain is an owner of a family business. Sen. McCain's tax returns were made public earlier this year.

The release of Mrs. McCain's tax return information supplements the existing extensive disclosure of the McCain family's financial information. For the last 28 years, since Sen. McCain first ran for Congress, all of the sources of Sen. and Mrs. McCain's income, and all of their assets, have been fully disclosed through publicly available financial disclosure forms filed with the United States Government. There is no new information on this tax return beyond the actual amount of Mrs. McCain's income and taxes paid, because all other details of her personal and family sources of income and assets are already public.

In comparison, the Obamas reported over $4 million in adjusted gross income for 2007 and paid $1.4 million in federal income tax. The Clintons reported over $20 million in 2007 income and paid just over $5 million in federal income tax.