Jeb Bush is worth up to $22 million

Jeb Bush is releasing a third of a century of his personal income tax returns, a record disclosure for presidential candidates. It’s a savvy move by Bush; by publicizing his income, he avoids the mistake made by past Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who by playing coy with his financial disclosures, made them a larger-than-life focus of his campaign. A bar graph rendering that comparison, showing Bush to the left of Bob Dole, who released 30 years of returns, sat atop the page when it went live. The reason Mr. Bush paid a higher rate than other wealthy candidates is because most of his earnings were reported as ordinary income, rather than as investment income or income from private equity-both of which are taxed at a lower rate. In its press release on the tax returns, the Bush campaign pitted Bush’s effective rate against the Clintons’ 30 percent 2014 rate. The decline in his net worth, from $2 million in 1998 to less than $1.3 million in early 2007, came largely from a diminished investment portfolio.

The vast majority of income came from consulting and speaking fees, where Bush earned between $40,000 and $75,000 apiece for dozens of appearances before business and trade groups, colleges, and organizations ranging from The Salvation Army to a South Korean defense contractor.

According to Bush’s tax returns, he earned $9.95 million delivering roughly 250 paid speeches between 2007 and early 2015. This created an additional $82,000 liability for Jeb Bush, meaning in total, Bush paid over $450,000 in additional taxes compared to what he would have paid had his brother’s cuts been extended. Nonetheless the fact remains that over the span of 33 working years his self-proclaimed effective tax rate of 36% has in reality only been his experience in just one of those years.

Bush is only the second presidential candidate this cycle to release tax returns since announcing a run for the White House.

Only the last 13 years of returns, which will shed light on Bush’s business dealings since leaving public office in 2007, are actually new; he released 20 years of tax filings in 2002 while serving as Florida governor.

[Bush tax forms show income of million since 2007].

Bush’s net worth now is between $19 million and $22 million, according to his campaign. “In each case, Bush said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing and said some of the people he met as a businessman in Florida took advantage of his naiveté”.

Aides called the release of more than three decades of personal tax returns “unprecedented” in American history.

“I’m not sure why someone with his business interests doesn’t have more from capital gains”, he says.

Although Mr Bush objects to the rate he’s paid over the years, he hasn’t yet proposed what he sees as an appropriate level of federal taxation – just that it be “flatter” and “fairer”. (He got an extension until October 15 to file his 2014 return.). On numerous occasions during the presidencies of his family members, Bush and his companies used his name and his influence to engineer some highly suspect deals. His starting salary was $42,000.

No other candidate has released as many returns. The figures are also categorized in wide ranges, such as $5 million to $25 million. Simplifying the corporate tax code (or ending it) would eliminate numerous crony-capitalist carve-outs that degrade the competitiveness of smaller players in markets.