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Teresa Heinz Kerry Releases 2003 Tax Info; Paid Over $798,000 in Federal, State Income Taxes
Fri Oct 15 2004 17:44:41 ET

KERRY PRESS RELEASE

Mrs. Teresa Heinz Kerry announced today that she has filed her final 2003 federal tax forms and as she said promised last spring, has released the top two pages of her 1040 tax filings.

Mrs. Heinz Kerry paid $798,820 in state and federal income taxes in 2003, approximately 35 percent of her gross taxable income, according to figures and federal tax forms she released today.

Mrs. Heinz Kerry paid $627,150 in federal income taxes on gross taxable income of $2,291,137, primarily from dividends and interest she receives from Heinz family trusts. In addition, she paid an additional $171,670 in state income taxes and had $2,781,791 of tax exempt interest income from state, municipal and public entity bonds. These taxes are separate from and in addition to the income taxes paid directly by the Heinz family trusts and by other beneficiaries who receive income from those trusts.

In 2003, Mrs. Heinz Kerry was responsible for more than $4.6 million distributed as charitable contributions, primarily through charitable grants by the Heinz Family Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation Mrs. Heinz Kerry established with her late husband, Senator John Heinz and later significantly expanded after his death in 1991 through her creation of the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Fund within that Foundation. The Heinz Family Foundation is principally funded by a charitable lead trust, the Teresa & H. John Heinz III Charitable Trust, established as a result of estate planning decisions made by Senator Heinz and Mrs. Heinz Kerry before his death.

The Heinz Family Foundation is separate from the Howard Heinz Endowment, of which Mrs. Heinz Kerry is Chairman, and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, of which she is a board member, both of which were established by earlier generations of the Heinz family and make significant annual charitable grants. Both the Heinz Family Foundation and the Endowments file publicly available Forms 990 PF on an annual basis, forms which set forth the charitable grants as well as investments made by each entity.

In 2000, then-candidate George Bush filed an extension for his 1999 taxes, released some information in the Spring and then released his 1040 Form after he filed his taxes in October 2000. Mrs. Heinz Kerry files a separate tax return from her husband, Senator John Kerry, and received an extension for filing her 2003 returns until October 15, 2004.

While she is not a candidate for any public office and the release of this tax information is not required by law, it fulfills the commitment Mrs. Heinz Kerry made last May. The release of this information is in addition to the financial information Sen. Kerry and Mrs. Heinz Kerry already had disclosed through the forms required by the Senate Financial Disclosure Report and the Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report, both of which are publicly available on Senator Kerry's campaign website, johnkerry.com.

"This tax information goes beyond any legal requirement, but John and I believe it strikes a proper balance between my family's privacy and the media's requests for additional information," Mrs. Heinz Kerry said.

[RogerRabbit]

Really could care less about her taxes - want to see the candidate's military records
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"Si vis pacem, para bellum"

[TEWSPilot]

Billionaires like her pay at about a 12% rate while the rest of us pay up to 50% when you figure all the federal, state, local, property, etc. taxes. Maybe she thinks 12% is her fair share and 50% is our fair share. Looks like an elitist, Socialist attitude to me. You can bet if Kerry wins, they certainly will have plenty of tax loopholes to protect themselves while all of us suddenly become the "undertaxed rich".

[kmudd]