U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon released tax returns Thursday showing that she and her husband, Vincent, had an adjusted gross income of $24.1 million in 2011, with capital losses and charitable contributions helping to cut their tax bill to $3.25 milliion, or 13.5 percent of their income.
Their income dropped by 20 percent from 2010, when the McMahons paid $4.7 million in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $30.6 million.
“Almost the entirety of their income is derived from stock dividends. I think it reflects the volatility of the economy and stock market. That’s just the way things go,” said Tim Murtaugh, her campaign spokesman.
The founders of World Wrestling Entertainment reported dividends of $23 million and $1 million in wages. They took $6.5 million in short- and long-term capital losses, yielding $4.7 million in itemized deductions.
While their income fell, their charitable contributions jumped twentyfold from $122,000 in 2010 to $2.3 million in 2011, with $2 million of their contributions going to their foundation, the Vince and Linda McMahon Family Foundation.
As a percentage of their adjusted gross, their charitable contributions went from less than 1 percent in 2010 to nearly 10 percent in 2011.
They also did not cut back on household help: They reported paying $347,531 in wages.
The Republican candidate released her 2010 returns last month, when it became uncertain if her 2011 returns would be ready before the Aug. 14 primary. She filed the 2011 returns still awaiting documents on two investments, but Murtaugh said they will not appreciably change her return.
“Linda now has released more information about her taxes than any other candidate on both sides [of the Connecticut Senate race] and more than most Senate candidates nationally — and certainly more than Harry Reid,” Murtaugh said.
Reid, who has criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for not releasing more tax returns, has declined to release his own, although he files annual financial disclosure forms required of members of Congress.
McMahon’s income has been a factor in her 2010 and 2012 races for U.S. Senate. She spent $50 milliion of her own fortune in 2010, losing to Democrat Richard Blumenthal.
She has been more frugal in 2012. According to her latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, McMahon has lent her campaign $12.5 million. She has spent about $12 million and had more than $2 million left in her campaign fund July 25.
At this point in her race against Blumenthal, McMahon had lent her campaign $21.5 million and spent $25 million — about twice as much as she’s spent in her latest Senate bid.