OT / Financial Papers Show Palins' Assets Top $1 Million
- From: "tiny dancer" <tinydancer357@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2008 03:08:53 -0400
Financial Papers Show Palins' Assets Top $1 Million
By LESLIE WAYNE
The McCain campaign released financial documents on Friday indicating that
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska had assets over $1 million, consisting largely of
an ample retirement portfolio, real estate and her husband's commercial
fishing business.
Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, kept her tax rate low
by putting all of her investments in tax-deferred accounts. In addition, she
did not report as income the $17,000 that she received in per diem payments
from the state while she remained at her home in Wasilla.
Tax returns for 2007 and 2006 show that Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, had
diverse sources of income. In addition to her salary as governor, there were
capital gains from the sale of a snowmobile and income from Mr. Palin's
winnings in the annual Iron Dog snow-machine race.
One of the most disputed aspects of Ms. Palin's tax returns, which were
prepared by H&R Block, is the tax treatment of the per diem payments. The
McCain campaign has said that these payments are not taxable income, a
position that has been questioned by tax experts.
"We have letters from tax experts on this," said a spokesman for the McCain
campaign, Brian Jones. "The State of Alaska conferred with the Internal
Revenue Service, and this is the decision that they came to."
The tax treatment of the payments has drawn considerable interest from tax
lawyers, who have written on this subject on various blogs, challenging the
campaign's interpretation of tax law.
"What jumps out to me in these tax returns," said Robert S. McIntyre,
director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group, "is that the
$17,000 in per diems is not there and it should have been."
The McCain campaign has been under pressure to release Ms. Palin's tax
returns after the Obama campaign released 10 years of returns for Senator
Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. In addition,
Mr. Biden has been required routinely to file financial disclosure
statements with the federal government because he is a sitting senator.
The documents issued Friday are the first glimpse into Ms. Palin's personal
finances and consisted of the federal public financial disclosure report and
two years of tax returns.
The Palins reported taxable income in 2007 of $166,080, consisting largely
of Ms. Palin's salary as governor. The couple paid $24,738 in taxes on this
income, at a tax rate of around 15 percent. But in 2006, the couple reported
taxable income of $127,869, which consisted mainly of Mr. Palin's income
from BP Exploration Alaska and an income of less than $5,000 for Ms. Palin
from the State of Alaska before she was elected governor.
That year, the couple paid $11,944 in taxes, a tax rate of just under 10
percent.
Yet for a couple with modest incomes, the Palins have amassed a sizable
portfolio that consists mainly of retirement investments and real estate.
The family home in Wasilla, which has been valued for tax purposes at
$550,000, was listed on the federal financial disclosure form, which
requires that all values be given in ranges, between $500,000 and $1
million.
The remaining real estate, valued at between $150,000 and $365,000,
consisted of a fishing leasehold on the Nushagak River and partial interest
in two other parcels of land.
The Palins kept their taxes low by putting all their investable assets into
tax-deferred accounts, including 401(k)'s, I.R.A.'s and defined-contribution
plans from Wasilla, the State of Alaska and BP Alaska.
The disclosure form listed the portfolio's value as from $300,000 to
$850,000. The assets in these retirement accounts included a sophisticated
range of investments, including mutual funds invested in Latin America,
small-cap stocks, shares in Spanish, Belgian and Australian indexes and a
midcap growth fund. Among the firms represented in the portfolio are Morgan
Stanley, Putnam, T. Rowe Price and Alliance Bernstein, all well-known
financial institutions.
Mr. Palin's commercial fishing business enabled the couple to deduct a small
portion of their home's expenses, and his snowmachine racing business was
marginally profitable. In 2006, it had a taxable income of around $2,500. In
2007, when Mr. Palin had $17,000 in prize winnings, he claimed business
expenses that resulted in a loss of $9,639.
The Palins reported charitable deductions of $2,500 in 2007, and $4,250 in
2006. The only charity identified in the tax returns was the Salvation Army,
which received a small amount of goods from the couple.
The McCain campaign declined to identify the other charitable recipients,
except to say that the money went to "churches in the local community,"
according to Mr. Jones, the campaign spokesman. He declined to say whether
the Wasilla Assembly of God, where Ms. Palin was a member until 2002 and is
still identified on the church's Web site as a "friend," received a
donation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04palin.html?ref=us
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