Clintons to Get $14,418 Refund Despite Bigger Income Tax Bite

WASHINGTON —  Finishing up his taxes just before Monday’s deadline, President Clinton is in line for a handsome refund from Uncle Sam. The bottom line for the Clintons: taxes of $55,313 on income of $263,900, with a refund of $14,418--half of which they’re applying to next year’s bill.

Joining the 36 million Americans who were expected to file in the homestretch of the tax season, the Clintons wrapped up final details of their return in a meeting with their accountant and tax attorney Thursday night.

The President’s tax bite works out to 21% of adjusted gross income, placing Clinton among the 1.2% of Americans paying more because of the deficit-reduction law he pushed through in 1993.

The President’s not complaining.

In fact, his press secretary used the release of Clinton’s tax returns Friday to again denounce Republican tax-cut proposals that the Democrats argue would unfairly benefit the wealthy.

“It’s clear from their returns that they would be enormous beneficiaries of tax cuts as proposed by the Republican majority in Congress and the President . . . thinks that that’s unfair and that tax relief ought to be targeted on middle-income Americans,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said. “As you can see from their return, they fall outside that category.”

The bulk of the Clintons’ income came from the President’s $200,000 salary, supplemented by $38,000 in capital gains on holdings in their blind trust and $21,000 in interest and dividends.

They also got $1,421 in residuals for Clinton’s 1992 appearance on the “Arsenio Hall” show and $259 in belated royalties for an article First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote for Harvard University in 1973.

For the second straight year, their dividends and interest included $12,000 for Hillary Clinton from a “pin money” fund for first ladies set up in the 1912 will of Henry G. Freeman Jr.

Freeman wrote that he set up the fund because “the President of the United States receives such a miserable pittance for a man holding the greatest position on earth.”

Nonetheless, the First Lady plans to donate the money to charity.

Overall, the Clintons reported $30,000 in charitable contributions during 1994, but declined to publicly itemize their donations. McCurry said the Clintons contributed to 28 organizations, with most of the money going to their churches.