Marco Rubio’s tax returns show book deals boosted salary

Marco Rubio made 14 years of his tax returns and Ted Cruz released four more years of his Saturday, increasing pressure on rival Donald Trump to release his. His tax rate ranged from 9.4 percent in 2010 to 27.4 percent in 2012.

Since 2010, when he was elected to the Senate, the Rubios have paid more than $18,000 in interest and penalties, mostly because they hadn’t paid their taxes in full by the April 15 deadline or because they failed to have enough taxes withheld during the year. Donald Trump’s potential reasons for fearing the release of his tax returns were explored by Mediaite on Thursday, following 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney jumping into the fray and backing up Ted Cruz’s position by telling Fox News Channel on Wednesday that there might be a “bombshell” revealed by Trump’s taxes.

Mr Cruz said: “If Donald is embarrassed about his tax returns, it’s up to the voters to assess the facts”.

“I want to release my tax returns but I can’t release it while I’m under an audit”, Trump said at the debate.

The Cruzes paid $389,124 on an adjusted growth income of more than $1.2 million in 2014, for an effective tax rate of 32.2%, the campaign said in a summary of the documents released. At the debate, Cruz shot back, that an IRS audit only underscores the need for Trump to release the records.

By contrast, the returns of Marco and Jeanette Rubio show a couple still facing financial strains despite high incomes. Trump claims that he is constantly being audited and stated that he has received unfair treatment from the IRS, possibly in an attempt to appeal to conservative voters’ low opinion of the government agency and to garner sympathy from them.

Rubio said Trump, who has promoted his success as a businessman as one of his key qualifications for the presidency, may not be as wealthy as he suggests. Trump has so far declined to do so, saying he’s being audited.

The release of the partial returns Saturday is a move to force Trump to do the same with his tax returns, as Rubio has rolled out a feisty new strategy of insulting and attacking the Republican front-runner.

Cruz left unclear whether he believes Trump should release his full returns or only the first two pages as the two senators did.

“I think part of it is he’s not as rich as he says he is”, Rubio said while campaigning in Georgia.

“It is time to stop the excuses”, Cruz said in the release.

He also faced questions for struggling for several months in 2008 to pay the mortgage on his $384,000 South Florida home, despite a $300,000 salary from his job at a Miami law firm. More recently, a personal financial disclosure form filed at the start of his candidacy showed that he had cashed out some of his retirement savings.

In 2011 and 2012, most of the Cruzes’ income came from real estate, royalties or other sources, the returns showed. None of Rubio’s tax releases include details about his itemized deductions or his investment losses and gains.

Rubio promised to release additional tax information in the future, but wanted to get the summaries out for the sake of time.

And Mike Murphy, the director of Right to Rise USA, the Bush-aligned super PAC, said Rubio should release more returns to put more pressure on Trump.