Heinz Kerry paid $750,000 in taxes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Teresa Heinz Kerry paid $750,000 in federal, state, and local income taxes last year, roughly 14.7 percent of the $5.1 million in income she received primarily from tax-exempt interest accrued on her vast bond holdings, Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign announced in a statement yesterday.

The wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee and heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune, Heinz Kerry reported a gross taxable income of $2.338 million, primarily from interest and dividends, and tax-exempt interest income of about $2.777 million, primarily from the bonds, for a total income of $5.115 million, according to a summary of her tax information. Final figures were not released because she has sought an extension to file her return in October.

Heinz Kerry reported paying $587,000 in estimated federal taxes for 2003 and $162,777 in estimated state and local income taxes, for a total payment of $749,777, or 14.66 percent of her overall income.

In addition, she reported a $280,000 payment in April toward expected additional 2003 and 2004 federal tax liability, but the summary did not spell out how much of the money was for each tax year. The report did not detail any personal charitable donations by Heinz Kerry, although it pointed out that the charitable foundations over which she presides donated millions last year.

Heinz Kerry has steadfastly refused to release her tax returns since she and the Massachusetts lawmaker married in 1995, pointing instead to the phonebook-size financial disclosure report she files with the Senate as part of her husband's ethics compliance process. The reports have detailed a vast array of stocks and bonds, but not specifically her income. Her overall wealth has been estimated at more than $500 million.

This year, her refusal to release her returns has generated political questions for her husband, since she is a prospective first lady who plans to continue presiding over a vast philanthropic empire if he is elected. Critics have charged that she could use her charitable donations to influence his political support.

In recent weeks, Heinz Kerry has said that her finances are inextricably woven with those of her three sons, all of whom, like her, inherited wealth following the 1991 death of her first husband, the late Senator H. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania.

Last week, during an interview with ABC's "20/20," Heinz Kerry said she hoped to release a summary of her returns to quell the questions. In yesterday's statement, she pledged to release the first two pages of her federal 1040 tax form when she files it in October. The statement noted that George W. Bush similarly sought an extension when he was governor of Texas and filed his federal tax return in October 2000, before he was elected president.

"While I am not a candidate for any public office, a great deal of my financial information has been disclosed for many years on my husband's Senate ethics disclosure and, now that he is a presidential candidate, with the Office of Government Ethics," Heinz Kerry said.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.