September 9, 2016 | No Comments
Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, in a break with Donald Trump, today released a decade’s worth of tax returns.
They show Pence is far less wealthy than his running mate, with the Indiana governor reporting earning $113,026 last year. He paid an effective tax rate of 7.9 percent, his return shows.
The Pences gave $8,923 to charity last year, the return shows.
Over the past decade, he’s earned as much as $187,495, according to a summary provided by his campaign.
“These tax returns clearly show that Mike and Karen Pence have paid their taxes, supported worthy causes and, unlike the Clintons, the Pences have not profited from their years in public service,” said spokesman Marc Lotter, in a statement.
The disclosure comes even as Trump continues to refuse to produce his own returns, breaking a decades-old tradition and prompting repeated attacks by rival Hillary Clinton. Critics have speculated that the Republican nominee pays a very low tax rate or earns far less than he boasts.
Trump has cited an ongoing IRS audit, among other reasons, though there are no restrictions against someone disclosing returns under investigation.
Pence’s release risks further highlighting Trump’s unusual stand, and Democrats will surely seize on the divide between the two candidates.
But Pence aides say they see an upside to today’s release, saying it will allow the governor to contrast himself with the Clintons, whom he’s accused of parlaying their public service into a fat payday.
“Politics seems to have morphed into a rigged game of self-enrichment and cronyism,” Pence said Thursday. “Americans are fed up with Washington’s self-enrichment racket.”
Pence, who often jokes about his relatively modest financial situation, reported last month in a separate disclosure to the FEC that he and his wife carry between $95,000 and $280,000 in student loan debt for his children’s educations.
Pence has been governor of Indiana since 2013, and before that, served a dozen years in the U.S. House.
Clinton and her husband reported earning $10.5 million last year, according to their tax return, upon which they paid an effective tax rate of 34.2 percent. The Clintons have released their tax returns going back decades, which show they’ve earned $150 million since 2007.
Her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, paid a 20.3 percent tax rate on $313,441 in 2015, his tax return showed.