Because the candidate only released the first two pages of his return, it is impossible to tell exactly how much… Mr. Cruz’s campaign questioned why Mr. Trump couldn’t release past returns and speculated about whether the returns might indicate that Mr. Trump isn’t as wealthy as he claims to be.
Advertisement
Cruz campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier on Saturday did not offer a new timeline for releasing the records. “I will absolutely give my return, but I’m being audited now for two or three years, so I can’t do it until the audit is finished, obviously”, Trump said. A comparison with personal Senate financial disclosures shows most of the income came from a business that collected royalties on two books: Rubio’s memoir, “An American Son”, and a pre-campaign tract, “American Dreams”.
For 2011, the Cruzes reported earning $1.7 million in adjusted gross income. It’s unclear from the Cruz’s forms what portion of the family’s income came from which spouse, but the annual salary for a USA senator is about $190,000.
Rubio’s wife has been a paid adviser to the charitable foundation of Norman Braman, a Florida auto dealer and major Rubio donor.
As for Cruz’s returns, they show that in 2014, he and his wife, Goldman Sachs executive Heidi Cruz, made more than $1.2 million. Cruz was elected to the Senate in 2012.
In 2012, his effective tax rate topped out at a little more than 31 percent.
The release of the two candidates’ tax filings came after Trump said in Thursday’s GOP debate that his returns have been the subject of audits for at least a dozen consecutive years.
Each had released earlier returns during their respective Senate races but had put off making public returns from recent years.
Rubio has released partial returns before.
The tax documents Rubio has released are not complete tax filings, as Mitt Romney provided in 2012 and Hillary Clinton produced previous year. Trump has so far declined to release his tax information, saying he’s being audited.
That idea was rejected by John Koskinen, the commissioner of the IRS, in an interview taped by C-SPAN on Friday.
“It is time to stop the excuses”, Cruz said in a statement.
For example, he suggested Trump might not want to reveal a lower income than he has led voters to believe – or perhaps donations to groups out of favor with the Republican right, such as Planned Parenthood. It said Trump should “follow Sen”.
Rubio had promised at the debate that there would be “nothing really that interesting” in his returns.
While a state official, he also came under fire for his use of a Republican Party credit card, and he repaid the state $2,400 after acknowledging he had several times received state reimbursement for travel expenses that he had also billed to the party. Rubio’s earnings that year were increased by cashing out $68,241 from his retirement savings.
Cruz released 2010-2014, and had previously released 2006-2010 when he ran for Senate.
By contrast, the returns of Marco and Jeanette Rubio show a couple still facing financial strains despite high incomes.
“We’re putting these out today to put pressure on Trump and the other candidates to release theirs”.
Advertisement
Both Cruz and Rubio have left the door open to releasing more information, with Cruz essentially daring his opponents to go first. He announced Monday, April 13, 2015, his campaign to seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
