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The Clintons earn a lot income, and pay a lot in taxes. Former President Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton released eight years of tax returns over the weekend. They paid about $43 million in federal taxes between 2007 and 2014 on earnings of $139 million. In 2012, the year presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s income faced scrutiny, their adjusted gross income of $19.7 million put them in the top 0.01 percent of households. Less than 14,000 US households earn that much. Hillary Clinton said, “Families like mine… have a responsibility to pay our fair share.” She has also called for higher tax rates on high-income Americans.
Denver’s mayor has tax plans for the city. Mayor Michael Hancock backs a November ballot measure to extend two tourist taxes that would help finance an $856 million National Western Center project and expansion of the Colorado Convention Center. He also supports a 0.8 percentage point sales tax hike to help low-income residents pay for college. And he’s working on a longer-term tax plan that could raise $15 million a year for affordable housing, transportation and other renovations.
Gas taxes just went up in Washington State. A 7-cent-per-gallon increase went into effect on Saturday, bringing state gas taxes to 44.5 cents a gallon. Including the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents, Washington state drivers now pay 62.9 cents per gallon in taxes at the pump. The state tax is scheduled to go up another 4.9 cents a gallon next summer, which could make its gas tax the second highest in the country, after Pennsylvania.
Fewer Americans are renouncing their citizenship. The US taxes citizens, regardless of where they live. Last year, tougher asset disclosure rules coincided with a record number of Americans living overseas giving up their passports. An unprecedented number of Americans—1,335—renounced their citizenship during the first three months of 2015, but only 460 did so from April through June. That’s the lowest quarterly total in more than two years.
On the Hill this week. The House is in recess but the Senate is in town. The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing tomorrow on family preservation and foster care.
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