Click the play arrow to watch as Rick Green of the Courant ask her to release the 2010 return in the absence of the 2011 return.
Tim Murtaugh, McMahon’s communications director, said they decided to release the 2010 returns because they’re afraid the 2011 returns won’t be completed prior to the Aug. 14 primary.
The 2010 return, which McMahon filed with her husband Vince, showed the couple made about $30.6 million in income. Most of the income, aside from the $827,500 salary Vince takes from his role as president and CEO of the WWE, comes almost entirely from stock dividends, which are taxed at a rate of 15 percent. The McMahons earned $29.6 million from stock dividends. However, Mrs. McMahon did receive about $155,000 in income from a movie she produced with her son and daughter-in-law.
The McMahons paid about $4.7 million in federal taxes in 2010, putting their effective federal tax rate at 15.3 percent, the lowest tax rate of all the U.S. Senate candidates.
Some of the couple’s investment income is in emerging market investments overseas, which is why they also paid more than $14,000 in foreign taxes. The amount was credited against their U.S. tax obligation. There’s no indication they keep their money in tax haven country’s like the Cayman Islands. Murtaugh said she received a foreign tax credit, but has “no foreign bank accounts.”
The McMahons also made about $122,000 in charitable donations through their personal return and $1.6 million in donations through the Vince and Linda McMahon Family Foundation, including $1 million to Sacred Heart University. They also gave $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, $333,000 to East Carolina University where they attended school, and $25,000 to Stamford Hospital.
Former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, who is running against McMahon in the Republican primary, has been critical of her for not releasing her tax return earlier. He said he believes she does have control over how quickly, and when it gets completed, but Murtaugh said they’re waiting on information from third parties and have no control over when those documents will be released.
But this isn’t the first time the McMahons have filed for an extension. They also filed for an extension in 2010. The batch of taxes released to news organizations on Friday were filed Oct. 12, 2011.
The release of the taxes gave at least one of her opponents an opportunity to criticize her and her campaign’s tax proposal to lower taxes for the middle class.
“Like many voters in the state, we’re interested in seeing the details, but this certainly helps explain why McMahon is pushing her tax plan so hard,” Ben Marter, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy said. “She stands to benefit ten times what the average Connecticut household would.”
Murphy, the Democratic frontrunner in the race, has an effective federal tax rate of 22 percent. Murphy and his wife reported about $220,000 in income in 2011 and use Turbo Tax to file their taxes. Read more about that here. Click here to read about Shays’ taxes.
